Accounting for the future: more than numbers
A collaborative investigation into the changing skill set for professional accounting
graduates over the next ten years and strategies for embedding such skills into
professional accounting programs.
Volume 1
Final report
By: Professor Phil Hancock (Project Leader), The University of Western Australia;
Associate Professor Bryan Howieson, The University of Adelaide; Associate Professor
Marie Kavanagh, The University of Southern Queensland; Dr Jenny Kent, Charles Sturt
University; Associate Professor Irene Tempone, Swinburne University of Technology;
Dr Naomi Segal (Project Manager), The University of Western Australia.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching
Council, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this report do not
necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd.
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2009
ISBN 978-0-6462-51691
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Contents Volume 1
Executive summary..................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1 – About this project................................................................................................... 7
Background .............................................................................................................................. 7
The project team – a representative group ............................................................................... 9
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 9
Chapter 2 – Project rationale, objectives and outcomes........................................................ 11
Project rationale ..................................................................................................................... 11
Project objectives ................................................................................................................... 12
Interim objectives:.................................................................................................................. 12
Project outcomes .................................................................................................................... 13
Chapter 3 - A review of scholarly literature ........................................................................... 14
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 14
Some recent examples of strategies to develop non-technical skills...................................... 15
Chapter 4 – Investigation strategy........................................................................................... 29
The project plan ..................................................................................................................... 29
Chapter 5 – Findings from stakeholder interviews................................................................ 33
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 33
Definition of non-technical skills........................................................................................... 35
Non-technical skills – their role in recruitment, training and employment............................ 45
Acquiring non-technical skills: whose responsibility is this? ................................................ 47
Technical Skills...................................................................................................................... 50
Basic technical skills, according to different stakeholder groups .......................................... 53
Acquiring technical skills: whose responsibility is this? ....................................................... 57
Comments about training in technical skills .......................................................................... 58
Comparison of metropolitan and regional stakeholders......................................................... 60
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 60
Chapter 6 – Findings from university surveys ....................................................................... 62
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 62
Details of responses ............................................................................................................... 62
Summary of strategies............................................................................................................ 63
Summary ................................................................................................................................ 67
Chapter 7 – Lessons learned for future projects .................................................................... 68
Research approach ................................................................................................................. 68
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Communicating with key stakeholders .................................................................................. 68
Chapter 8 – Summary and limitations .................................................................................... 70
Summary ................................................................................................................................ 70
Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 71
Chapter 9 – Evaluation............................................................................................................. 72
An external evaluator ............................................................................................................. 72
Summary Statement written by Patrick Boyle ....................................................................... 72
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 74
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Executive summary
This project is a collaborative investigation into the changing skill set deemed necessary
for professional accounting graduates over the next ten years and the strategies for
embedding such skills into professional accounting programs. The goals for the 12- month
project were to:
1. Identify whether there is a consensus as to the relative importance of key technical
and non-technical skills for graduates of professional accounting programs to meet
the challenges of the profession over the next ten years.
2. Identify the range of non-technical skills required of professional accountants over
the next ten years.
3. Identify examples of best practice for the embedding of relevant non-technical
skills in professional accounting programs.
4. Widely disseminate findings to accounting academics for use in accounting
programs in the higher education sector and to other stakeholders, with
presentations at seminars in each mainland state and at AFAANZ conferences.
In the first stage of the project, data were collected from interviews with these key
stakeholders: employers of accounting graduates, including all Big 4, some mid-tier/niche
and small accounting firms; the three professional accounting bodies; large and small
companies; and the public sector across Australia. The project team also interviewed
recent graduates and conducted focus group sessions with current accounting students.
Interviews were transcribed and analysed, with the identity of individual participants
concealed.
Common themes that emerged across the country were:
1. The technical skills required of graduates were essentially basic accounting skills,
like debits and credits, although this varied by size of employers.
2. Non-technical skills were deemed to be very important in accounting graduates,
particularly by employers in large organisations; communication, teamwork and
self-management were regarded as the most desirable.
3. Graduates’ skills deemed by stakeholders to be the most inadequate were
communication and problem solving; their deficiency was also seen to be the most
restricting to graduates in their career development.
In the second stage of the project, the project team distributed a survey to all 38 public
universities seeking information about how non-technical skills were developed and
assessed in all the relevant subjects required for accreditation by the professional
accounting bodies. The non-technical skills used in the survey were those identified by the
Business, Industry and Higher Education Collaboration Council (BIHECC) in its Graduate
Employability Skills Report published in August 2007. The survey also invited
respondents to share initiatives/strategies for the development of these nine non-technical
skills.
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We received responses to the surveys from 20 universities, and these responses yielded 18
teaching strategies for developing non-technical skills. We then contacted these
respondents to elicit further information about each one. Most of the strategies were being
applied at a unit level, and one was at the whole-of-program level. The project team has
prepared an explanation of each of the 18 strategies and these are included as a second
volume to our report and will be made available on the ALTC Exchange.
The project team has not passed any value judgements or assessed these
initiatives/strategies. We do, however, provide a description of each initiative, the learning
and teaching rationale that underpins it, and any evidence available about its success. Our
report should enable accounting academics to select those initiatives that interest them and
to have enough detail to trial the idea in their subject or program. To aid those who require
further information about particular strategies, we have included the contact details of
willing contributors.
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Chapter 1 – About this project
Background
As part of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s (ALTC, formerly the Carrick
Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Ltd) Discipline-Based Initiatives
Scheme, Accounting for the future aims to build on the Australian Business Deans Council
(ABDC) scoping study 'Business as usual? A collaborative and inclusive investigation of
the existing resources, strengths, gaps and challenges to be addressed for sustainability in
teaching and learning in Australian university business faculties' (Freeman et al. 2007).
The project leader for Accounting for the future was a member of the steering group for the
ABDC scoping project. The ABDC project identified issues within professional
accounting programs that warranted a separate investigation to “build on prior work”
(Freeman, 2007, p.6). In particular, the ABDC study identified significant problems with
the accounting discipline, including: very large classes, with students drawn from a diverse
range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds; chronic staff shortages, which are expected
to worsen in the coming years given the ageing demographic of staff; lack of
communication skills, particularly, but not exclusively, among international students; and
tensions in the discipline arising from the number of pathways available for entry into the
accounting profession and the potential challenges this creates for higher education
accounting programs.
The remainder of this chapter is devoted, first, to the purpose for Accounting for the future;
this is followed by an introduction to the project team members; and, finally,
acknowledgment is given to key stakeholders for their vital support to the project.
The following quote from a key stakeholder in one of the professional accounting bodies,
quoted in the ABDC scoping study, illustrates the concerns that Accounting for the Future
aimed to investigate:
We require them [the universities] to show us where they’re teaching the soft skills.
We don’t make them do a separate communication subject, but we ask them to
show us where they’re developing all of those oral communication, written
communication, working in teams, and negotiation skills.
The findings of Jackson, Watty, Yu, & Lowe, (2006a), another ALTC study, resonate with
the ABDC scoping study findings. Jackson et al. note the concerns of employers regarding
the perceived inadequate development in university accounting graduates of the otherthan-technical skills that are required for employment in the accounting profession. “In
particular and overwhelmingly, English language and professional communication skills
are the areas of deficiency most often cited by graduate employers in Melbourne, Hong
Kong and Singapore in this study” (Jackson et al. 2006a, p.18). Whereas these researchers
struggled to find an agreed definition for some of the generic (non-technical) skills, such as
‘thinking and acting critically’ or ‘acting strategically’, their Manual for Improving
Assessment in Accounting Education, (Jackson et al., 2006b) describes an approach to
integrating communication skills and teamwork in an undergraduate program.
The Mathews report (1990) made a series of recommendations covering a broad range of
issues for the accounting discipline; the two below relate to courses and teaching:
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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In the development and review of three-year undergraduate accounting courses,
higher education institutions and course development and accreditation
committees should look for evidence of a broad general education and the
integration of communication and computing skills into the teaching and learning
processes (Recommendation 4.3, Australia. Review of the Accounting Discipline
in Higher Education, 1990, p. xxiv).
All academic organisational units involved in teaching undergraduate accounting
programs should integrate the different disciplinary units within the degrees, so
that students may gain a co-ordinated understanding of how the disciplines interact
in the business environment and the economy” (Recommendation 9.3, Australia.
Review of the Accounting Discipline in Higher Education. 1990, p. xxxi).
Findings in the Jackson et al. (2006a) project and in the ABDC scoping study suggest that
the recommendations of the Mathews report are equally relevant today. The difference
between then (1990) and now, it would seem, is that those expectations regarding graduate
‘soft skills’ have evolved to higher order skills, such as analytical and critical analysis, and
ability to engage clients, negotiate and act strategically. This higher-skills expectation was
also reflected in comments made at a Business Higher Education Round Table meeting
held in Sydney in March 2007, where Professor Fred Hilmer (UNSW), in discussing
particular skills valued by employers in the twenty-first century, identified written, oral
and negotiation skills, and specific skills required of younger staff in managing an ageing
workforce. A similar situation has been noted in a recent US report titled Next generation
accountant. A new outlook on a timeless profession prepared by Robert Half International
Inc.:
To succeed in tomorrow’s accounting, finance and audit environments, council
members said professionals need a wider range of skills than at any time in recent
memory. Well-developed financial and technology abilities remain essential, but
strong interpersonal and analytical skills are increasingly crucial for success…
(http://www.financialleadershipcouncil.com/preparing_tomorrows_workforce.html
accessed August 3, 2007)
Furthermore, there is a considerable push by accrediting bodies such as The Association to
Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) for ‘assurance of learning’. For
accreditation to occur, each degree program needs to have its learning outcomes listed and
mechanisms in place to demonstrate that students have actually acquired them. It was
therefore timely for Accounting for the future to review the changing skill requirements for
professional accounting graduates and to investigate the growing breadth of non-technical
skills, including communication, interpersonal and critical thinking skills that, in the
opinion of stakeholders, will be required of students graduating from university
professional accounting programs over the next ten years.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers is a collaborative, Australia-wide project.
Apart from reporting and analysing representative stakeholders’ viewpoints about existing
and required technical and non-technical skill development in Australian accounting
programs, it presents strategies for embedding these skills in professional accounting
programs. These teaching strategies will be widely disseminated to accounting programs in
the higher education sector.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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The project team – a representative group
•
Professor Phil Hancock, the Project Leader, is Associate Dean, Teaching and
Learning in the Business School at The University of Western Australia. He has
been involved in accounting higher education for over thirty years, was a member
of the executive of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New
Zealand (AFAANZ), and a member of the steering group for the ABDC scoping
project.
•
Associate Professor Bryan Howieson is Head of Accounting at The University of
Adelaide. He has been in accounting higher education for over thirty years, is a
former President of AFAANZ, and currently is a Vice-President of the
International Association for Accounting Education and Research.
•
Associate Professor Marie Kavanagh is Associate Dean, Faculty of Business at the
University of Southern Queensland. She has been in accounting higher education
for over thirty years, and is currently Chair of the Accounting Education Special
Interest Group of AFAANZ.
•
Dr Jenny Kent is Sub-Dean Teaching & Learning at Charles Sturt University, and
has been in accounting higher education for over fifteen years.
•
Associate Professor Irene Tempone is Head of the Accounting Economics Finance
and Law Academic Group at Swinburne University of Technology. She has been
involved in accounting higher education for almost thirty years.
•
Dr Naomi Segal, a Lecturer at The University of Western Australia, is the Project
Manager.
The project team adopted an action research methodology (see Chapter 4 for details),
designed to provide a participative and reflective structure to the project. Thus
participative processes, sharing reflective practice, and an orientation towards learning in
action characterised the modus operandi of the project team.
Acknowledgements
The team wishes to acknowledge the support and assistance of the following people:
Dr Elizabeth McDonald and the ALTC staff for their support and positive
leadership approach, which helped foster such enthusiasm for the project.
Professor Tim Brailsford, President of the Australian Business Deans Council, for
his endorsement of the project on behalf of the ABDC.
Sheena Frankel, General Manager, Chartered Accountants Program & Admissions,
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia for support of the project on
behalf of the Institute.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Kate Freemantle, then Director, Education and Training, CPA Australia for support
of the project on behalf of CPAA.
Lloyd Driscoll, General Manager, Learning and Development, National Institute of
Accountants for support of the project on behalf of the NIA.
Professor Barry Cooper, President of the Accounting and Finance Association of
Australia and New Zealand for his endorsement of the project on behalf of the
AFAANZ.
Associate Professor Mark Freeman for his support of the project on behalf of the
ABDC Teaching and Learning Network.
Stephen Probert, Assistant Director of Business, Management, Accountancy and
Finance Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy in the UK for his
support of the project.
Associate Professor Kim Watty, Director, Teaching and Learning Unit, Faculty of
Economics and Commerce, University of Melbourne for valuable feedback on the
interview questions.
Beth Tennent, Associate Dean Learning and Teaching, Faculty of Business and
Informatics, Central Queensland University for valuable feedback on the interview
questions.
Patrick Boyle of Q Associates in his role as external evaluator.
Dr Leonie Daws of Kihi consultancies for the NVivo data analysis.
We thank all participants in the study, including students, academic staff and the
stakeholders in the profession, industry and professional associations for giving so
generously of their time to be interviewed, to complete surveys, or to assist in the
dissemination workshops.
We also wish to thank The Australian Learning and Teaching Council for its generous
financial support for this project. The application was funded from October 2008 for
approximately $100,000 for initially a 12-month period, extended to 18 months.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Chapter 2 – Project rationale, objectives and outcomes
Project rationale
Previous work, such as the Access Economics Report (2005), has clearly identified that
business education adds considerable value to the Australian economy, the higher
education sector and the individual in the form of higher taxation revenue, personal
income, and greater productivity. Previous investigations have provided valuable sectorspecific information about learning and teaching issues confronting business education.
Researchers are now investigating how to establish sustainable student learning
experiences and outcomes. This project focuses specifically on accounting education in the
tertiary sector.
Up until the global financial crisis the Australian economy was experiencing very high
growth and accompanying this growth was a huge demand for accountants. Accounting is
a popular study option for many domestic and international students. It has been listed on
the Migration Occupations in Demand List since September 2004, and for students who
hold a first degree in another discipline area, postgraduate conversion courses can be
completed in two years.
It is difficult to obtain numbers for professional accounting graduates because the
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations’ (DEEWR) figures for
course completions in universities report only management and commerce course
completions, and professional accounting forms part of this broad field of education.
However, in a recent report for CPA Australia (CPAA) on The Changing Face of the
Accounting Profession in Australia, Dr Bob Birrell states:
The number of professional accountants employed in Australia has grown strongly,
increasing from around 100,000 in 1995-96 to just over 140,000 in 2005-06.
However, there has been little increase in the training of domestic accountants
over the past decade. Much of the growth in the employed accounting workforce
has been drawn from recently arrived migrants. (Birrell 2006, p.1)
The Birrell report notes that many of the graduates from postgraduate conversion courses
are not working in professional accounting firms because “[although]… such graduates are
generally technically proficient and usually possess a strong work ethic, the problem lies
with their communication skills” (Birrell 2006, p.16).
Using data from 2006-2007, Birrell is quoted in an article in the Higher Education
Supplement of the Australian by Lane (The Australian Higher Education Supplement, 14
January 2009, p.26) “more than a third of overseas students who secured visas as
Australian-trained accountants had worryingly low English language skills”.
The professional accounting bodies are so concerned with the level of communication
skills of overseas accounting graduates that they have jointly developed a Skilled
Migration Internship Program Accounting (SMIPA), which was offered for the first time
in Australia in 2009. This program co-developed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants
in Australia (ICAA), CPA Australia (CPAA) and the National Institute of Accountants
(NIA) is a 12-months professional year program aimed at overseas students recently
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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graduated from accounting programs and unable to find professional accounting
employment. The objective is to provide work experience to students while assisting with
the development of their communication and teamwork skills.
In 2007 the Business Industry and Higher Education Collaboration Council published a
report on Graduate Employability Skills identifying eight key employability skills
important for graduates in business. This report highlights concerns beyond
communication skills for all students taking degrees in business, including accounting.
Project objectives
Accounting for the future does not address the issue of the number of university places
made available for professional accounting students. Proposed changes to the English
language competency tests will have some impact on the level of communication skills of
future graduates from overseas. However, it can be anticipated that the alleged ability of
students to circumvent such English competency screening tests will continue. In any case
it is the goal of this project to review the skill requirements for professional accounting
graduates in the next ten years and to investigate the growing breadth of non-technical
skills required by stakeholders. This should add value to the higher education professional
accounting sector by identifying and describing examples of effective teaching strategies
for embedding a variety of highly sought communication skills into teaching programs.
To aid them in this goal, the project team defined its interim objectives.
Interim objectives:
To establish whether there exists a general consensus about the relative
importance of key technical and non-technical skills for graduates of professional
accounting programs who have to meet the challenges of the profession over the
next ten years, and, if a consensus exists, to establish the parameters by
interviewing key stakeholders.
To identify the range of non-technical skills required of professional accountants
over the next ten years by interviewing key stakeholders.
To survey the university sector about existing teaching practices, the perceived
level of skills development effectiveness, and priorities.
To identify examples of effective teaching strategies for the embedding of relevant
non-technical skills, including communication, in professional accounting
programs.
To widely disseminate findings to accounting programs in the higher education
sector and other stakeholders using this report, Australia-wide dissemination
workshops, professional conference presentations and proceedings, other
presentations, and the ALTC Exchange.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Project outcomes
The outcomes of the project are:
a comprehensive literature review (Chapter 3 of this report)– to be used with
previous disciplinary and generic project outcomes to identify strategies for the
teaching and embedding of non-technical skills;
this report – on findings, strategies and recommendations for the ALTC on the
importance of technical and non-technical skills and various initiatives for the
teaching of non-technical skills in accounting programs in Australian universities;
and
a supplementary report (Volume 2 of this report) – with more detailed explanation
on all the initiatives submitted to the project team, ranging from a component in an
individual unit through to a whole-of-program approach (also available on the
ALTC Exchange website).
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Chapter 3 - A review of scholarly literature
Introduction
In spite of many initiatives to improve graduate employability skills of accountants in
Australia, the development of these skills has remained as problematic as in other
disciplines (Green, Hammer & Star 2009, Star & Hammer 2007). Perhaps this should not
surprise in an unpredictable and intensely competitive global market, where new entrants
to the profession find that the role of the accountant has expanded beyond narrow
disciplinary knowledge to include, for example, strategic management, and risk and
change management (Parker 2001, Jones & Abraham 2007). In this environment,
accountants require an ever broadening range of personal and interpersonal attributes or
skills, including adaptability (Harvey 1999, p.7), proactivity (Howieson 2003), and expert
communication and people-management skills.
It should also not surprise that periodic surveys of Australian employers’ and practitioners’
expectations and assessment of accounting graduates continue to reveal gaps; for example,
in critical analysis and rating of ethical standards (Jones & Abraham 2007); and in
behavioural skills (listening and questioning skills) of, for example, financial planners
(Jackling & Sullivan 2006). Most recently, Kavanagh & Drennan (2008) confirmed and
elaborated on these gaps by documenting unmet employer expectations of graduates in the
areas of:
…strong background knowledge . . . growing experience of life and work . . .
general business awareness, knowledge of ethics and the profession, ability to work
across the disciplines and interpersonal skills. (p.294)
There are various explanations for the persistence of these perceived skill gaps. Leveson
(2000) nominates as contributing factors the imprecision both of concepts such as ‘generic
skills’ (non-technical skills) in general and particular generic skills statements. (Table 3.2,
below, illustrates the lack of agreement about the terms to describe non-technical skills).
In addition, Leveson critiques the assumptions that the skills are applicable to diverse and
contrasting work environments and that they are transferable from the university
environment to the workplace. Both assumptions have yet to be validated. Furthermore,
educators and employers have different approaches to the measurement of these skills.
Barrie (2004) identifies the absence of a conceptual framework and theoretical
underpinning for ‘graduate attributes’ and generic (non-technical) skills, which encourages
different understandings of the ‘teaching and learning processes’ necessary to enable the
skills to be developed. The absence of a conceptual framework also contributes to lack of
enthusiasm among academics for initiatives to develop such skills. Parker (2005) provides
a contextual explanation in which, inter alia, corporatisation and commercialisation of
Australian universities, and the accompanying work intensification and casualisation of the
academic workforce, militate against curriculum revisions. Whitefield & Kloot (2006,
2007) attempt to provide a point of reference to academics designing curricula and
struggling with operationalising skills that have multiple meanings, but eventually
conclude that the nature of the definitions ‘remains inherently fuzzy’ (2006, p.24). Green,
Hammer & Star (2009, pp.17, 19) are more emphatic, characterising the skills definitions
as lacking ‘conceptual clarity’ and suffering from ‘theoretical nebulousness’. The advice
from these authors is nevertheless to engage in [teaching] practice on the assumption that
‘practice can sometimes serve to sharpen theoretical understanding’ (p.20). Such
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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exhortations coincide with regulations that have made funding to Australian universities
conditional on developing graduate attributes (Green et al. 2009, p.18). The authors
observe, however, that the response of universities to this decree has been patchy (p.18,
citing Barrie 2005, Hager, Holland & Beckett 2002).
Some of the teaching practice for non-technical accounting skills both in Australia and
beyond is reflected in the literature emerging around each skill. What follows are select
literature review samples for each of the skills.
We have not included in this review the important work of Australian practitioners who, as
part of Accounting for the future shared their personal practice of developing and
improving the non-technical skills of accounting graduates. Their practice and published
work are described in Volume 2 of this report.
Some recent examples of strategies to develop non-technical
skills
Written communication skills
Sin, Jones & Petocz (2007) perceive all non-technical skills required of accounting
graduates to have a linguistic, hence a communication, dimension. Their review of
innovative interventions to improve written communication of accounting students
includes Friedlan (1995), who made ‘extensive use of contextualized mini-cases . . . class
room discussions and critical-thinking skills’ (p.147) and demonstrated the impact on
student perceptions of accounting practice of interactive teaching (p.147). They also refer
to Mohrweis (1991), English et al. (1999), Ng et al. (1999), Ashbaugh et al. (2002), and
Tindale et al. (2005), all of whom used writing components additional to the regular
accounting curriculum and/or additional detailed feedback on the non-technical elements
of the learning (p.147). Some recent additions to the literature as discussed by Sin, Jones &
Petocz (2007) follow below.
Stout & DaCrema (2004) describe their intervention in students’ faulty use of modifiers.1
The strategy involved a handout to students sensitising them to the pervasiveness of faulty
modifiers and to their correct use, in-class discussion of the handout, and testing of the
intervention by collecting assessment data (both direct and indirect) from two institutions
in which the intervention was applied. Inexpensive and unobtrusive, the intervention
proved ‘valuable in remedying discrete weaknesses of student writing’ (p.289). It could
also serve as a model to address other grammatical problems. The article includes the
handout and the written communication skill assessment quiz.
Lynn & Vermeer (2008) employed a structured writing program that was representative of
the writing experiences that students, as recent accounting graduates, could expect in the
workplace. They achieved this realism by developing an individual scales instrument with
which to assess the structured writing exercises (a series of memos to clients including, in
some instances, spreadsheets) in two intermediate accounting courses, which enabled more
effective grading of writing and specific feedback on workplace writing skills (as
1
Quoting Stout & DaCrema (2004, pp.314-315): ‘A modifier is a word or phrase that changes, in one way or
another, the characteristics of the thing (e.g. verb, noun, or phrase) modified. ‘‘He ran quickly.’’ ‘‘Quickly’’
changes or modifies the characteristics of ‘‘ran’’. ‘‘Ran’’ is an unadorned, stripped-down version of the
action.’ Faulty modifiers hinder understanding.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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compared to academic writing skills). The assessment instrument included scales for
evaluating organisation, style, and tone. Realism was further enhanced by using Business
Advisory Board members to evaluate the improvement in students’ writing, but only after
reviewing the advisory board members’ qualifications for the task. The ratings by the
Business Advisory Board indicate that the overall quality of student memos improved in
the area of organization, style and tone, as well as meeting the requirement of the
assignments. This means that they were better able to explain the technical aspects of
accounting work to a non-accountant. The article includes a detailed schedule of the
assignments in the two intermediate courses, a pre-test and post-test assignment and the
evaluation instruments provided to the Business Advisory Board members involved in the
grading.
Sloan & Porter (2008) describe the background, research and preliminary findings of a
program to provide English language support to international business students, concurrent
with their subject modules, in the Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University.
The program designers developed the CEM [contextualisation, embedding and mapping]
Model which ‘identified contextualisation, embedding and mapping as the foundation for
improving’ (p.51) such support programs. The program promotes and sustains
collaboration between the language instructors and the subject specialists so as to increase
students’ opportunities to learn. The program has increased students’ understanding of the
link between the support program and the subject-specific module and, thereby, attendance
figures of the support program.
Oral communication skills
Strategies to enable development of oral communication skills of accounting students are
often linked to communications apprehension studies (Aitken & Neer 1993, Hoffman &
Sprague 1982, Myers & Rocca 2001) and to class discussion, as Dallimore, Hertenstein &
Platt (2008) observe (p.164). The benefits of class discussion, through its ‘emphasis on
active learning’, impact on the development of problem solving and critical thinking skills,
as documented by Dallimore, Hertenstein & Platt (2004, 2006), who advocate grading
class discussion, including students who are cold called (that is, they have not volunteered
to participate) so as to ‘extend the benefit of in-class discussion to all students’ (cited in
Dallimore, Hertenstein & Platt 2008, p.163). Active student preparation (in this instance
second term American MBA students taking a management accounting course) and
participation in class discussion ‘can be linked to students’ reports of improved oral and
written communication skills’ and ‘discussion can be a useful addition to cross-curricular
programs, such as writing and speaking across the curriculum and stand-alone courses,
such as public speaking’ (p.63).
Anderson and Mohrweis (2008) provide examples of rubrics that are useful in assessing
accounting students’ acquisition of skills, including writing and oral presentation skills.
Grace & Gilsdorf (2004) utilise ‘communication-to-learn’ exercises which combine oral
communication activities with accounting course content and work. They aim to minimise
changes to existing course structure and grading approaches. The exercises consist of four
presentation tasks of increasing difficulty and length (two are one minute each, two are
about five minutes each) only three of which are graded. The first is an ungraded selfintroduction task for students containing half a dozen facts about themselves, the second is
a graded five-minute presentation of a simple accounting exercise assigned to each student,
the third a graded one-minute response to an instructor’s question, and the fourth a graded
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
16
five-minute summary of a current business news feature. Whereas each exercise has a
slightly different purpose, three of the set tasks ‘ground the student in the comfortable
territory of technical knowledge’ but also ‘force the student to communicate this
knowledge to outsiders’ as well as providing the instructor with feedback on the students’
level of understanding (p.169).
Teamwork (cooperative learning)
In 2001, Lancaster & Strand reported that ‘accounting educators have only recently
reported on the use of this pedagogical method [cooperative learning]’ and that
‘accounting education has yet to arrive at a consensus of opinion regarding the efficacy of
cooperative learning’ (cited in Gabbin & Wood 2008, p.392). Even by then, however, over
900 research studies provided evidence for the effectiveness of this method of learning (p.
392). Since then, the literature, even in relation to the use of the strategy in accounting
alone has grown to an extent that makes it difficult to summarise here (see Gabbin &
Wood 2008, pp.393-395). The selection here is from the extensive literature of the last
three years alone.
Kennedy & Dull (2008) demonstrate the value of integrating into team assignments
training in and use of specific meeting management techniques intended to focus and guide
students (e.g. agendas, surveys, action plans). The authors also provide assignment
suggestions on how to integrate these techniques into team assignments in particular
accounting disciplines (e.g. audit, managerial, systems, or tax).
Hwang, Lui & Tong (2008) replicate their 2005 study and demonstrate again that
cooperative learning is a more effective learning and teaching strategy for students raised
and educated in a passive learning environment (traditional lectures).
Lightner, Bober & Willi (2007) describe a pilot study in which ready access to technology
and innovative collaborative opportunities created an environment capable of engendering
student engagement, in which the focus was on group processes rather than achievements
and the emphasis was on the dynamics of teaming. The course was a graduate-level
financial accounting course.
By contrast to the work of Hite (1996), who demonstrated a positive effect on accounting
students’ final exam scores after they participated in a group exam compared to those
taking only individual exams, Gabbin and Wood (2008) found no such effect, a result
which should encourage some scepticism in relation to group work. Riordan, Riordan &
Kent St. Pierre (2008) point out that contrary to other disciplines, accounting educators
have neglected to subject group work to critical analysis, most specifically in relation to
the phenomenon of ‘groupthink’. (Groupthink causes group members to passively absorb
the dominant ideas and values of the group, resulting in ethical and intellectual ‘dumbing
down’ of the group and often in poor decision making (p.190). The authors suggest
general strategies to counteract groupthink, as well as remedies for specific situations.
Their overall advice to accounting educators, however, is to approach new pedagogies
critically and avoid becoming victims of groupthink themselves.
Perhaps the most significant development in cooperative learning/team learning is Teambased Learning (TBL) as set out in Michaelsen, Knight and Fink (2004). According to its
developers, the principles underpinning this approach are: (i) rather than a series of
independent small group activities, the instructional strategy is a set of sequenced and
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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linked learning activities that work together synergistically to create a high level of energy
that students can then apply to the learning task; (ii) small-group work is the primary inclass activity; (iii) using the instructional strategy will usually require restructuring a
course to the extent that the activities need to fit in with a particular lesson, usually leaving
the remainder of the course unchanged; and (iv) team-based learning revolves around team
development, a social unit quite different from groups (characteristics of teams are a high
level of individual commitment to the welfare of the group and a high level of trust among
the members of the group). The literature reports on the success of the technique in a
variety of disciplines (for example, medicine, nursing, health sciences, general
embryology) and though it is currently being used in accounting education (for example at
University of Sydney and at UWA), published literature on use of TBL in accounting
education was not available at the time of writing.
Critical thinking skills
Baril et al. (1998) cites Deppe et al. (1991, p.276) who:
…conducted a literature review to identify general competencies considered as
essential by professional accountants at the time new hires enter the profession.
Each study they reviewed emphasizes that critical thinking and problem solving are
important prerequisites to success in the profession.
Clearly, it is not necessary to establish that critical thinking and problem solving is
inherent in some form to all skills described as non-technical skills or graduate attributes.
At the same time, an element of creativity and innovation has been added to the more
traditional definition by professional bodies, which extends understandings of problem
solving beyond traditional critical thinking and makes examples of teaching strategies
which exemplify it harder to find. An exception is perhaps McWilliam & Dawson (2008)
who observe a loose connection between ‘creative learning outcomes’ and problem solving
and thinking skills in higher education policy but also the lack of definitional clarity
associated with the term (p.636). The link is present in employers’ consensus about the
importance of ‘imagination/creativity’ as a quality in graduates, enabling them to focus
less on ‘routine problem-solving [than] . . . on interactivity, navigation capacity, forging
relationships, tackling novel challenges and synthesising “big picture”, scenarios’ thereby
providing a ‘competitive commercial edge’ (p.635). Though not specifically concerned
with accounting education, McWilliam & Dawson’s attempt to assemble a number of
principles from a range of disciplines to enable educators to orchestrate ‘a creativityenhancing [learning] environment’ (p.633) is likely to assist instruction in problem solving
accounting.
Tonge & Willet (2009) develop an intellectually challenging management accounting
assignment over 10 years which can be readily adapted to other subject areas and which
requires students to write an article on a set topic (an example is: ‘Environmental
Management Accounting & Accounting for Quality: Do they have a common purpose?’,
p.213).
The assignment enables students to develop critical thinking (analysis, reflection and
evaluation, p.209), research and written communication skills as well as presentation
skills. Its features are:
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
18
research-informed learning;
illustrations of both exemplar and threshold performance provided to students at an
early stage;
an assignment brief and marking scheme;
multiple opportunities to receive timely, specific, ungraded formative feedback
from the teaching team;
an opportunity to reflect on the learning process and outcome of the assignment;
and
availability of a ‘premiere class library’ compiled from the best previous student
submissions (p.208) as well as examples of previous work at ‘threshold’ levels of
performance (p.212).
Tate & Grein (2009) engaged auditing students in an interactive exercise to design and
implement a sampling plan: ‘[s]tudents are asked to opine on a bakeshop owner’s assertion
that every chocolate chip cookie baked has at least seven chocolate chips’ (p.161). The
exercise, focused on active learning, was developed over six years covering 15 audit
classes at three universities and is designed for use in an introductory auditing course at
undergraduate or graduate level. The task selection intended to avoid direct audit-related
tasks so as to allow students to concentrate on the sampling process rather than on auditing
tasks with which they were not fully familiar (p.161). The article includes a detailed
description of the exercise (including engagement planning, pre-and post-test survey
questions, possible extensions of the activity, the recipe for baking cookies and alternatives
to cookie baking).
Dewett & Gruys (2007) report on an MBA course centred on developing creativity and
innovation in organisations. The authors use readings from business journals (both popular
and academic) to try to engage MBA students with core course concepts, personal journal
writing to record intersections of insights arising from the course experience and their
working life. Other activities push students to experience risk, reflect on the experience,
and move towards experiential learning, including completion of unfamiliar tasks to raise
their sense of self-efficacy.
Problem-based learning
Problem-based learning (PBL) assists students to think critically, analyse complex,
authentic problems and solve them (Hansen 2006). The process enables students to
develop information literacy, communication skills, cooperative learning and lifelong
learning skills as well as content knowledge. A PBL problem can engage higher cognitive
skills than ‘a typical end-of-chapter problem’. Hansen describes how to write a PBL
problem on the topic of auditing long-term debt and pitch it to different levels. He also
provides an example for each level (2006, pp.223-224).
Wilkin & Collier (2009) embrace a new accounting education pedagogy that focuses on
learning about processes. Using design science methodology, they create ‘authentic
learning activities . . . to support learning about processes from an accounting perspective’.
The activities involve a case study that ‘entailed configuring an enterprise system with an
authentic replica of business information and processes for student use’. Student use at
Monash University demonstrated the feasibility of the design. The authors further illustrate
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
19
that the concepts can be successfully applied with large and small cohorts. Success
depends, however, on strong commitment of unit co-ordinators and departments, requiring
not only a financial commitment but also resource allocation administrative support and
ownership of the value of the undertaking. Lucas (2008) provides details of playful
activities in an undergraduate auditing course that induce students to question taken-forgranted assumptions about both themselves and the subject of auditing, that is, to engage
in and become aware of the value of critical thinking.
Ethics
D’Aquila (2008) reports on and describes integration of Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERs) into
financial auditing classrooms to enable learning of auditing and ethics-related concepts.
The article includes suggested discussion questions and sample assignments. Ghaffari,
Kyriacou & Brennan (2008) explore efforts of U.K. higher education institutions to
integrate ethics into the accounting curriculum and report that teaching of accounting
ethics in U.K. universities is ‘very largely embedded within financial accounting and
auditing courses rather than delivered as a stand-alone ethics course’ (p.191). Hurtt &
Thomas (2008) examine recent implementations of a three-semester-hour course in ethics
(i.e., 30 semester credit hours) as a pre-requisite education requirement for CPA
examination candidates in Texas. They report that ‘the vast majority of courses followed
mixed models, that is, models that incorporate ethical theory, decision making, codes of
conduct, and coverage of other ethical values, as well as a combination of lecture, case
study, and moral dilemma’. Only a few courses ‘follow a social responsibility, ethical
code, or virtue-ethics approach’ (p.45).
Self-management and planning and organising
Whereas some recent publications in business education dealing with the teaching of selfmanagement skills in business education (Gerhardt 2007), the recent accounting education
literature deals with this skill, and the skill of planning and organising, as incidental to or
bound up with cooperative learning and teaching strategies (see, for example, Dyball et al.
2007, p.145; McWilliam & Dawson 2008, p.638). An exception is Abraham (2007), who
compares blended learning of accounting by engineering students with learning by
traditional approaches. Blended learning involves face-to-face interaction as well as online
methods. It is student centred and allows students to self-pace their learning, encourages
active learning strategies and peer-assisted learning (p.2), but it balances the online method
with live interaction. It enables students to assume more responsibility for their learning
and to achieve deep learning (p.2). A comparison of the two methods of delivery to two
different cohorts over two semesters demonstrated that student motivation and grades (as
reflected in both in-session tests and final examinations) improved significantly under the
blended delivery method. Furthermore, the average number of times that students
attempted weekly questions was higher for students learning via the blended approach,
even though the questions were not compulsory. This demonstrates the increased degree of
self-management assumed by students under this method (p.7).
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
20
Lifelong learning, initiative and enterprise
Candy (1995, 2000) places producing lifelong learners at the heart of the university’s
educative endeavour while acknowledging that graduation ‘marks the beginning of the
graduate’s need for continuing personal and professional learning’ (2000, p.261).
‘Action-based’ learning by students in the workplace encourages autonomy, responsibility
and ability to ‘exercise discretion and make fine discrimination’ in technically and socially
complex situations (Bates 2008, p.306). Also known as work-integrated learning,
experiential learning, situated learning or work-integrated learning; action-based programs
in the workplace involve ‘structured strategies’ that integrate academic studies with work
experience relevant to the students’ chosen academic or career goals (Abeysekera 2006,
p.8 citing Groenewald 2004). Intended to achieve applied and problem-based knowledge
of real world situations, such programs come in diverse forms including internships, work
placements in which learning is contingent (p.9), and service learning or community
service programs managed through faculty and having carefully supervised learning
objectives and reflective processes (p.10). Whereas all three forms are classed as
contributing to lifelong learning, the difference between service learning and other forms
of work-integrated learning is that service learning contributes not only to improved
problem solving skills, but also to civics education (Star & Hammer 2007).
Beard (2007) reports on the assessment tools used in an internship program at Southeast
Missouri State University. Assessment tasks include student self-evaluation, student
program evaluation, participation in an exit interview as part of an evaluation by the onsite supervisor, a written report, maintaining a diary/journal, and an oral presentation.
Student learning as assessed via these tasks can be linked to the AICPA core competencies
by means of a chart provided by the Institute (pp.218-219). Beck & Halim (2008) report
the learning outcomes for undergraduate accounting interns in Singapore, noting especially
the importance of the internship for personal and interpersonal skills (adaptability, selfefficacy and learning to work under pressure). Chiang (2009) shares the experience of
designing and integrating service learning projects into management accounting courses.
The projects were a strategic financial analysis for a community farm and analysis focused
on the costs of forming a domestic violence response team for a community service
organisation receiving limited funding. Group assignments, especially students’ reflective
activities over a 15-week period, encouraged ‘lifelong learning modes’ but also required
problem-solving, communication, time-management, and teamwork skills.
Ability to deal with diversity, including intercultural competency
Based on the AACSB’s 2008 Eligibility procedures and standards of accounting
accreditation, ability to deal with diversity means recognising and valuing the importance
of cultural and intellectual diversity and sensitivity and thinking from a global perspective
(pp.11-12). That component of the Australian concept that deals with valuing cultural
diversity (‘ability to deal with diversity’) is internationally more commonly referred to as
‘intercultural competence or competency.
Deardorf (2006) documents ‘consensus among top intercultural scholars on the definition
and assessment methods of intercultural competence’, develops two models of the skill,
and provides an assessment inventory guide on request. Conclusions of the study are, inter
alia, that it is possible to measure intercultural competence, though to do so is a complex
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
21
undertaking, that multiple assessment methods, primarily qualitative, be used, and that the
definition of ‘intercultural competence’ continues to evolve. One of the study’s
recommendations is that the development of intercultural competence be recognised as an
ongoing process, and therefore assessed ‘throughout time’ (p.259). Hunter, White &
Godbey (2006) advance definition, understanding and modelling of the concept ‘global
competence’, and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to attain such competence.
In addition, their survey of 133 representatives of self-selected universities outlines the
curricular changes necessary to develop global competence at university level. Of recent
studies that deal with particular pedagogical strategies to enable students to develop
intercultural competence, Antal & Friedman (2007) provide teaching approaches in a
business school context. Their specially designed course that can be adapted to weekly
sessions, guides students in their group work, to examine the ‘difficult intercultural
situations they experienced’, and uses role play to ‘experiment with alternative responses’
(p.363). The article includes some teaching materials. No recent publication was found that
deals specifically with teaching strategies enabling accounting students to learn to deal
with diversity.
The preceding sections provide only a sample of the rich and growing literature about
developing and improving the non-technical skills of accounting students. The sample was
selected based on the most recent publications highlighting successful and innovative
practices. The definitional problems highlighted in the introduction to this chapter made
listing and organising the examples difficult, especially so in relation to the skill of lifelong
learning. The one omission in the preceding review relates to technology, which usually
refers to basic IT skills, willingness and ability to learn new IT skills and the manual
dexterity to apply them. It is a measure of the rate of change in this area that in 2009 it is
expected of accounting students that they will acquire these skills independently of, or
incidentally to, their university training.
Table 3.1, below, lists some major interventions in accounting education where the project
team were able to access copies of the report, both in Australia and overseas, since 1986.
The table provides a selection of the key recommendations arising from these interventions
either from the reports themselves or from the literature that developed around them.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
22
Table 3.1. Interventions in accounting education, Australia and overseas
Date
published
Author and/or
sponsoring or issuing
organisation
Title of report
Recommendations relevant to this
report
1986
American Accounting
Association, Committee
on the Future Structure,
Content, and Scope of
Accounting Education
(Bedford Committee)
Future Accounting
Education: Preparing
for the Expanding
Profession
It is desirable (1) to expand perception of
accounting from a narrow discipline to a
broad process of information
development and distribution requiring
five years or more of university
education, (2) to defer specialised
accounting courses to the end of this
period, (3) to improve students’ ability to
deal with innovation by designing
interactive classroom sessions focusing
on unstructured problems so as to instil a
curiosity for learning which will serve as
a foundation for lifelong learning.
The major reorientation of accounting
education in line with these
recommendations should take place by
the year 2000.
1988
Joint Standing
Committee of the ICAA
and the ASPCA in
conjunction with the
AAANZ
Task Force for
Accounting
Education in
Australia
‘Higher education institutions should
progressively alter the required content
of their undergraduate degrees to permit
greater flexibility and facilitate later
specialization; the duration of basic
accounting studies should be the
equivalent of four years’ full-time study’
(three years u/graduate and one post
graduate’) (Tippett 1992)
1989
American Accounting
Association (AAA)
Committee on the Future
Structure, Content and
Scope of Accounting
Education and the Big
Eight accounting firms
(Bedford Committee)
Perspectives on
Education:
Capabilities for
success in the
Accounting
Profession [The Big
White Paper]
Emphasised the need for change in
academic programs to address student
skills development. Suggested forming
the Accounting Education Change
Commission to which it pledged up to
$4M.
1990
Accounting Education
Change Commission
(AECC)
Objectives of
education for
accountants: Position
statement number 1.
The overriding objective of accounting
education is to establish a foundation for
students to develop a program of lifelong
learning.
The component of this foundation are (1)
skills (communication, interpersonal, and
intellectual), (2) knowledge (general,
organization and business, and
accounting) (3) professional orientation.
Although a single model of accounting
education was not considered appropriate
for all programs, the AECC notes that
accounting programs should emphasize
learning by doing, working in groups,
and the creative use of technology
(Rebele et al. 1998, p. 4).
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
23
Date
published
Author and/or
sponsoring or issuing
organisation
Title of report
Recommendations relevant to this
report
1990
Mathews Commission
Accounting in Higher
Education: Report of
Review of the
Accounting
Discipline in Higher
Education
A fourth year of study be introduced by
1995 as a one-year postgraduate diploma
in professional accounting or as a Master
of Professional Accounting
1993
Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England
and Wales (ICAEW)
Chartered
Accountant – The
future of our
qualification
The members of the ICAEW agreed on a
definition of 'the chartered accountant for
the future' - CA’s must possess ‘proven
ability and intellectual capacity, an
understanding of basic accounting
principles, technical skills in
accountancy, adequate experience in
practical situations, and high personal
standards. Changes in accounting
examinations have been made to
facilitate the evaluation of candidates for
membership in the Institute according to
its definition of the chartered accountant
for the future. However, it has been
pointed out that professional
examinations do not measure all the
relevant characteristics of such
accountants. Suggestions for overcoming
the limitations and risks of examinations
are offered’
(http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Business/
Assessing-the-chartered-accountant-forthe-future-US-accountancy-regulatorbranded-unconstitutional.html).
1994
Institute of Chartered
Accountants
Chartered
Accountants in the
21st Century
Broaden acceptable accountancy degrees
and entry routes to bring new skills to the
profession.
Replace current routine, predictable and
boring teaching with innovative
instruction (Abdolmohammadi, Novin &
Christopher 1997).
1994
Siegel & Sorenson,
commissioned by the
Institute of Management
Accountants (IMA) and
the Financial Executives
Institute (FEI)
What Corporate
America wants in
Entry-level
Accountants
As, in the main, accounting graduates
were judged by corporate executives
from a cross section of industries illprepared for entry-level jobs in the
corporate sector, it was considered
necessary to restructure the accounting
curriculum to meet the needs of
corporate customers (Rebele et al. 1998,
p.4).
1995
American Accounting
Association
Administrators of
Accounting Programs
Group (AAPG) Practice
Involvement Committee
(Bullock Committee)
Accounting
faculty/practitioners
partnership to
address mutual
education concerns
Recommends changes in attitude, joint
action and commitment to a personal,
ongoing involvement aimed at achieving
productive changes in accounting
education between accounting
practitioners and educators
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
24
Date
published
Author and/or
sponsoring or issuing
organisation
Title of report
Recommendations relevant to this
report
1998
Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England
and Wales (ICAEW)
Creating the Addedvalue Business
Advisor
Proposed curriculum reform to
distinguish core and elective subjects
defeated by membership
1998
American Accounting
Association, Changing
Environment Committee
The Future Viability
of Accounting
Education
Warns about the threat posed by nontraditional deliverers of accounting
education, such as the corporate
university
1998
Institute of Chartered
Accountants in Australia
The Vision 2020
Taskforce Report:
Chartered
accountancy into the
next century- radical
change or diminished
influence?
CAs of the future will need both
generalist and specialist knowledge
(Parker 2001).
1998
American Institute of
CPAs (AICPA)
Vision 2011 project
CPAs must become market driven and
not reliant on regulation to keep them
employed, and . . . the market is now
demanding less audit and accounting and
more value-added services (Parker
2001).
1999
AICPA
The CPA Vision
project: 2011 and
beyond
Developed vision statement along with
prospect for a new professional
qualification ‘as part of a full scale effort
to reposition both general professional
knowledge and the nature of professional
claims. The expert system of
accountancy was to be tied to a new and
more general professional argument’.
Hoped for a ‘broad based business
advisor credential that would more easily
encompass the full range of services that
accounting firms provide. . . a truly
global brand that leverages the ethics and
standards of a profession but can
embrace people with broad business
knowledge and proven competencies’
(cited by Fogarty et al. 2006).
1999
Siegel, G. & J.E.
Sorenson for the Institute
of Management
Accountants
Counting More,
Counting Less:
Transformations in
the Management
Accounting
profession
Observations: Since 1995, there has been
an increase in management accountants
working on cross-functional teams.
Management accountants spend more
time communicating with people in their
firm than five years ago. Universally,
respondents agree that good
interpersonal skills are essential for
success.
Skills needed for success.
The 1999 Practice Analysis respondents
were asked to describe the most
important KSAs necessary for success.
They are: Communication (oral, written,
and presentation) skills, ability to work
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
25
Date
published
Author and/or
sponsoring or issuing
organisation
Title of report
Recommendations relevant to this
report
on a team, analytical skills, solid
understanding of accounting, an
understanding of how a business
functions. Recommendations for
educators: The insights gained from the
1999 Practice Analysis should be used to
address needed curriculum changes
(Russell et al. 1999).
2000
Albrecht, W.S. & Sack,
R.J.
Sponsored by the
American Institute of
Certified Public
Accountants (AICPA),
Accounting
education: Charting
the course through a
perilous future
Addresses the need to improve the
academic preparation of accountants for
entry into the profession... specifically
encourages accounting educators to
revise curricula to meet the changing
requirements of business
employers…[provides] a guide [to]
curriculum revision decisions …also
focus . . . attention on addressing student
deficiencies in the knowledge, skills, and
abilities possessed by entry-level
accountants (Johnson et al. 2008, p.252).
The Institute of
Management
Accountants (IMA), the
American Accounting
Association (AAA), and
the Big 5 professional
service firms (Arthur
Andersen, Deloitte &
Touche, Ernst & Young,
KPMG, and
PricewaterhouseCoopers
); published by American
Accounting Association,
Sarasota, FL.
2005 &
2006
International Federation
of Accountants (IFAC),
International Accounting
Education Standards
Board
International
Education Standards
for Professional
Accountants (IESs)
‘Prescribe the essential elements of
education (including practical
experience) necessary to become a
professional accountant, and the ongoing
education requirements once qualified as
a professional accountant’ (Saville 2007,
p.107)
2006
Birrell, B. for the CPA
The Changing face of
the accounting
profession in
Australia
As the migration solution to filling
shortages in Australian accountant
graduates has failed (many graduates are
not achieving professional level
appointments), these policy responses are
required: either an expansion in domestic
training, or a reform of the rules
governing the selection of migrant
accountants. The Government declared
its intention to raise the minimum level
of English required for applicants. ‘The
accounting accrediting societies have a
role in reviewing the standards they use
to certify the curriculum requirements
that accountants trained in Australia and
overseas must meet. Another solution is
to require a minimum of occupational
experience before permitting a migrant
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
26
Date
published
Author and/or
sponsoring or issuing
organisation
Title of report
Recommendations relevant to this
report
with accounting qualifications to be
allocated MODL points. [based on
conclusion].
2007
Freeman et al. for the
Australian Business
Deans Council
Business as usual? A
collaborative and
inclusive
investigation of the
existing resources,
strengths, gaps and
challenges to be
addressed for
sustainability in
teaching and learning
in Australian
university business
faculties
1. ABDC T&L Network select project
teams
to
develop
funding
applications for the future ALTC
(Carrick) Institute funding round
based around these three follow-on
proposals.
2. ABDC and T&L Network develop the
appropriate structure and processes
to appropriately manage and assure
the quality outcomes of the three
follow-on proposals.
3. ABDC and T&L Network develop a
national reference group to support
sustainable industry engagement and
that a primary role be to assist in
maintaining the relevance and
Excellence of contemporary business
education (e.g. with curriculum
reform).
4. ABDC be referred for consideration
and action, where possible and
appropriate, the various issues
identified in this study as beyond the
scope of the T&L Network (e.g.
funding of business faculties).
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
27
There are many terms like graduate attributes or generic skills used across various
countries to describe what in this study is referred to as non-technical skills. Table 3.2
below provides details of the names used in several countries.
Table 3.2 Preferred terms, by country, for non-technical skills
Country
Term used to describe non-technical skills
Australia
Key competencies, employability skills, generic skills, non-technical
skills, professional skills
Canada
Employability skills
Denmark
Process independent qualifications
France
Transferable skills
Germany
Key qualifications
New Zealand
Essential skills
Singapore
Critical enabling skills
Switzerland
Trans-disciplinary skills
United Kingdom
Core skills, key skills, common skills, personal skills
United States
Basic skills, necessary skills, workplace know-how, transferable
skills, fundamental skills
National Centre for Vocational Education Research (2003) ‘Defining generic skills’
(with additions).
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
28
Chapter 4 – Investigation strategy
Like the successful strategy employed in the ABDC’s Business as usual, this project
adopted a form of action research. This entailed a close ‘relationship between research and
some form of practical activity, such that the focus of inquiry [arose] out of, and its results
[fed] back into, the activity concerned’ (Hammersley 2004, p.176). Practically, therefore,
the definition of the problem arose from stakeholders, academics, students, and recent
graduates; the phases of the research were vetted by a reference group of practitioners, and
feedback and some of the findings were fed back to the practitioners at a series of
conferences and professional association meetings, as well as through specially convened
workshops.
Table 4.1, below, outlines the timeline and investigation phases of the project.
Table 4.1: Project timeline and investigation phases
Phase
Timeline
Phase 1. Planning and preparation
Oct-Dec 2007
Phase 2. Implementation
January – Dec 2008
Stage 1.
Collect data
Stage 2.
Analyse data
Phase 3. Review results, report writing
January –April 2009
Phase 4. Disseminate results
Ongoing throughout project
The project plan
Phase 1: Planning and preparation
During the planning and preparation of phase one, the project leader and team met
face to face to define and refine the details of the project and its methodology,
appoint a project officer, establish a reference group, develop a communication
strategy, including procedures for records and meeting frequency, and began to
identify and contact stakeholders for interviewing.
Phase 2. In this phase, the project team began a literature review and decided on a
system for achieving representativeness and coverage in data collection.
Specifically, the team:
•
decided to collect data in two stages. The first set was obtained from
practitioners, graduate students and undergraduates views of graduates’ skill
gaps, and their predictions of their future skill needs. Practitioners were drawn
from different sectors that employ accounting graduates across the public, the
commercial, and the corporate sectors, and encompass large and small, regional
and metropolitan firms. Students who had graduated in the previous five years
were also interviewed. In addition, some project members conducted focus-
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29
group sessions with current undergraduate students. The second stage of the
project was a survey of accounting academics in Australian universities to
establish how they were developing and assessing the non-technical skills that
graduates require and their reflection on their approaches in developing these
skills; and
•
developed separate questionnaires for stakeholder interviews, graduates, and
student focus groups and developed the survey questions to distribute to
universities. Mostly universities were contacted through a ‘coordinator’
academic in each institution who was known to the project members. The team
also developed an evaluation strategy for the project and recruited an external
evaluator.
Phase3: Implementation of project. The project team:
•
contacted practitioners in their capital city or surrounds;
•
collected information of professional accounting programs in all Australian
universities and other key countries: the UK, USA, Canada, and New Zealand;
•
reviewed past national studies of higher education accounting, including the
Task Force for Accounting Education in Australia and the Mathews report;
•
collated relevant resources from past national CAUT/CUTSD/AUTC teaching
projects relating to accounting education and other ALTC-funded projects
relevant to professional accounting (e.g. Jackson et al., 2006,b);
•
met (teleconferencing, email, and face-to-face meetings) to determine questions
for interviews of key stakeholder groups, including the professional accounting
bodies, accounting firms, large and small employers in the public and private
sectors, university accounting faculty, current students and recent graduates;
•
sought feedback from members of the reference group to refine questions for
the interview stage of the project and interim report to ALTC;
•
conducted interviews with key stakeholders, including:
o Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
o CPA Australia
o National Institute of Accountants
o Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand
o Big 4 accounting firms
o Mid tier/niche accounting firms
o Small accounting firms
o Large and small employers in the private sector
o Public sector employers
o Accounting faculty in universities
o Recent accounting graduates
o Representatives from language units and learning skills advisors;
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•
interviewed current students to obtain evidence about career aspirations and
their perceptions about the importance of non-technical skill development;
•
interviewed recent graduates to obtain evidence about the non-technical skills
important in their role as a professional accountant, to what extent they
developed such skills during their university degree, and how that assisted in
the development of those skills in the work place; and
•
collected information from university accounting programs on strategies they
use to embed identified non-technical skills in the program and processes used
to provide assurance of learning such skills.
Phase 4: Review and reporting
•
submitted a draft final report on findings, strategies, and recommendations to
the ALTC; the draft was reviewed following feedback from the ALTC;
•
submitted the final report to ABDC, ALTC and Reference Group members; and
•
undertook, with the ALTC, further embedding strategies (e.g. discussion with
other disciplinary councils).
Phase 5: Disseminate results: Project members used many opportunities, including
those listed below to disseminate results.
•
February 2008 – poster display at the February 2008 ABDC T&L Network
meeting
•
March 2008 – website with basic information on project set- up on ALTC
exchange
•
May 2008 – presentation and flyer distribution to all participants at the Joint
Universities Committee meeting
•
6 July 2008 – presentation and brochure distribution at the AFAANZ SIG
Education meeting
•
9-10 July 2008 – second poster display at the ABDC meeting
•
21 August 2008 – presentation to Accounting and Finance Staff at UWA about
the project, later mentioned in August 2008 CPA Update, item 5
•
February 2009 – presentation to the ABDC T&L Network meeting outlining
some of the major findings
•
March-April 2009 – a series of five workshops (in Sydney, Melbourne,
Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth), to disseminate the results of the project
stakeholders, including accounting and other university educators. Participants
in the workshops were given the results of the report; there was general
concurrence with, and support for, the findings on the importance of nontechnical skills. Participants felt that the process the project began should be
ongoing. A brochure summarising the 18 strategies detailed in Volume 2 of this
report was distributed to all attendees
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
31
•
April 2009 – presentation of a paper on the project to the annual conference of
the BMAF (Business, Management, Accountancy and Finance) Network of the
Higher Education Academy in Cardiff, Wales
•
April 2009 – paper submitted to the Australian Accounting Review
•
July 2009 – paper accepted for presentation at the annual conference of the
Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide
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Chapter 5 – Findings from stakeholder interviews
Introduction
In this chapter we discuss the findings from the interviews conducted with stakeholders:
employers of accounting graduates, current students, and recent graduates. Data were also
generated from focus group sessions with current at several project-team-member
universities. The transcripts provided rich data on the role of non-technical skills in:
recruitment, training and in daily work as an accountant. The skills stakeholders most
frequently referred to, in order of frequency, were communication and presentation,
teamwork, good interpersonal skills, self-management, initiative and enterprise, problem
solving, technological competence, and planning and organising skills. Beneath these
general areas were specific skills in broad skill domains. For example:
Communication skills – verbal skills, including speaking, listening, negotiation and
feedback, ability to critically comment and write;
Teamwork and good interpersonal skills – rapport and trust;
Self-management – being a well-rounded mature confident person;
Initiative and enterprise – ability to work on one’s own;
Problem solving and client relationships – applying theory to practice; and
Planning and organising – time and project management skills.
Stakeholders ranked non-technical skills variously. Stakeholder categories were:
employers, professional bodies, corporations, public sector, graduates and current students.
Employers were selected from: Big 4, mid-tier/niche and small accounting firms in both
metropolitan and regional areas. Students were either graduates with two to three years
experience or current students.2. Tables 5.1 and 5.2 summarise these categories.
2
In this chapter reference to stakeholders means all interviewees including employers and
students. Specific reference is also made to employers or students.
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Table 5.1 Stakeholders interviewed
Number
Big 4 accounting firms
4
Mid-tier/niche accounting firms
5
Corporations
8
Public Sector
4
Professional bodies
3
Other employers
8
Recent graduates
10
Current students
5
TOTAL
47
Table 5.2 Metropolitan/regional composition of stakeholders
Metropolitan
Regional
Total
Employers
21
8
29
Professional bodies
3
0
3
Recent graduates
7
3
10
Current students
3
2
5
TOTAL
34
13
47
According to the stakeholders interviewed the required technical skills, in order of the
most frequently cited, were: basic practical accounting skills, IT, accounting software
skills, and industry-specific skills and awareness. Beneath these general areas were
specific skills, such as taxation, debits and credits, and audit in the basic accounting skills
and Excel in the IT skills, with MYOB straddling both accounting and IT.
NVivo, a software tool to assist in analysing interview data, was used to interrogate the
interview transcripts. The analysis below addresses each of the main areas of non-technical
and technical skills, with discussion on particular skills in each domain. Frequencies are
reported on various aspects of each of the skills, together with illustrative extracts in the
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domains. Extracts are given with their sources and, in some cases, a judgement as to
whether they were made in a positive or negative manner about the particular skill being
commented on.
Definition of non-technical skills
Communication, presentation
These were defined as both verbal and written, with the majority of stakeholders viewing
them as verbal skills – speaking, listening, negotiation and feedback – and the remainder, a
substantial minority, viewing them as written communication and reports.
Table 5.3 Frequency of comments defining communication
Number
Communication, presentation
45
•
26
Verbal skills, speaking, listening, negotiation and feedback
•
o Cross-cultural and language skills
11
o Using ordinary language with non-accountants
6
18
Written communication, reports
o Literacy, numeracy skills
5
Employers, graduates, and current students all commented extensively on the role and
definition of communication skills. There were 45 comments about communication and
presentation skills, of which 27 were related to verbal and 18 to written skills.
Table 5.4 Frequency of comments on communication skills by different stakeholder
groups
Current students
Graduate
Employer
Total
5
9
31
45
Verbal skills, speaking,
listening, negotiation and
feedback
3
7
17
27
Written communication,
reports
2
2
14
18
Communication, presentation
•
•
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Table 5.5 Frequency of evaluative comments on communication skills by different
stakeholder groups
Positive
Negative
Neutral
Total
Employer
9
12
10
31
Graduate
3
1
5
9
Current students
1
2
2
5
Total
13
15
17
45
Interviewees’ comments on communication skills indicate the importance of these skills to
employers and the way they are perceived. They were about evenly divided as to
communication skills of accounting graduates, with 13 positive and 15 negative comments.
Interviewees perceived communication skills as vitally important in satisfying the
requirements of the workplace, given the need to work in teams, relate to clients, and
operate within a business environment; these were all dependent on good communication
skills, however defined. Employers emphasised the ability of accountants to really listen to
and understand client needs. Employers were also wary of exposing graduates to clients
until they (the employers) were satisfied that their level of communication skills was
sufficiently developed to match the organisation’s benchmark. The selection of comments
from employers in diverse sectors and geographic locales illustrates this point.
Employer/positive
The way we do business now means that we have to be able to communicate with
clients at all levels.
Graduate/positive
Primarily my ability to deal with people and …. in discussions and
organisational skills and the ability to acquire information because my belief is
that you can train anyone to do the job basically but personality is hard to
fashion. In a client-orientated role you have to bring that to the table basically.
Current student/positive
. . . so where my non-technical skills really fire are in tutes because I have had a
few tutes where I don’t know anybody and yes, you just have to be able to
communicate with people . . . You just have to put yourself out there and be able
to communicate.
Employer/negative
…you often find one of the things that is really lacking in the non-technical areas
is the ability to put thoughts on paper. So, quite often their writing skills and
getting that down onto paper are not the greatest and that’s something that stops
their development.
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Teamwork, good interpersonal skills, compatibility with the organisation’s
ethos
Many organisations list teamwork as an important criterion in many advertised vacancies,
but just what is meant by teamwork? Stakeholders discussed teamwork and other related
skills as frequently as communication skills. Teamwork was discussed by 45 interviewees
in the context of compatibility with the ethos of the organisation and good interpersonal
skills. Twenty interviewees talked about client relationships, focus, and trust as important
aspects of teamwork. Eighteen discussed the importance of leadership in teams; and 21
talked about the role of managerial skills in effective teams.
Table 5.6 Frequency of comments about the context of teamwork
Number
Teamwork, good interpersonal skills, fit organisation’s ethos
45
•
Client relationship, focus, rapport, trust
20
•
Leadership
18
•
Managerial skills
21
In discussing the ability of graduates to work in teams, the employers interviewed were
more positive, with 65 percent commenting favourably and 35 percent with negative
comments. Table 5.7 reports the number of positive and negative comments mentioned by
employers, graduates and current students.
Table 5.7 Frequency of evaluative comments on teamwork skills by different
stakeholder groups
Positive
Negative
Total
Employer
10
6
16
Graduate
2
0
2
Current students
3
2
5
Total
15
8
23
A sample of interviewees’ comments below indicate the necessity of teamwork, how it
creates a strong sense of commitment to colleagues and to the organisation, and how it
allows workflow to be managed and deadlines to be met.
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Employer/positive
But we had big deadlines coming up and they all just stepped up. But maybe
that’s part of when we employ them, the sort of things that come up then and it is
not peer pressure, but they just feel committed to the team and their clients and
they do those things.
Current student/positive
I think that it is not so much emphasised in the actual coursework but more when
you have the opportunity to do group assignments for accounting; that’s when
these non-technical skills really come out.
Employer/negative
But rather just to sit there and not to gain the experience from those around them
and she found that... If only they had the initiative. . . to go and try and find it,
which was OK, so that’s a good skill to have, but to then say, “Well look, I just
don’t get it, give me some more guidance” or ask someone else who is in the
same team.
What happens from there is that it is trying to have people understand that when
they have done a four-hour module on managing conflict as a graduate that that
doesn’t hold good for the rest of their career because there is often, “Oh, well,
we’ve done that. We have ticked that box.” So again that’s one of the big
struggles we have and again it gets back to issues that come through.
Current student /negative
I think it is definitely important for them (lecturers) to at least raise awareness of
– you will come in contact with people you don’t like.
Self-management
The third key area of comment relating to non-technical skills was self-management. In
order of frequency, the key area of self-management discussed was the need for wellrounded, mature, confident persons, followed by being hard working, dedicated and
holistic, flexible and able to deal with complexity, uncertainty and pressure. Many
employers referred to the need for a ‘well-rounded and mature’ applicant as a
consideration in the recruitment stage. It often served as a discriminator between
applicants with similar grades. Employers also referred to self-management in the
workplace, perceiving it as hard work and dedication and an ability to deal with
complexity, uncertainty and pressure.
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Table 5.8 Frequency of comments defining self-management
Number
Self-management
41
•
Ambition
6
•
Community involvement, social responsibility
7
•
Hard working, dedicated
12
•
Holistic, flexible, able to deal with complexity, uncertainty,
pressure
11
•
Intellectual capacity
2
•
Self-presentation, professional presence, behaviour
8
•
Well-rounded, mature, confident persons
20
•
Work independently, manage time
13
Some comments by employers indicated that grades were not all that was required and that
the ‘well-rounded’ graduate was highly in demand. This is perhaps not surprising given the
results of other studies (Light 2001). When combined with study, life experiences such as
part time employment, sporting and extra-curricular activities (particularly those including
leadership responsibilities) were the most desirable traits in recruits. In the workplace the
ability to manage oneself in a team environment is also important to employers.
Employer/positive
As we are a family company we want people who are going to fit in. So we look at
how they are going to ‘fit in’ as a person, so interpersonal skills, and attitude to
work. Some want top money straight away but don’t necessarily want to work the
hours that are required. We like people who live locally. There has to be some
return for effort and a certain type of person to stay in (regional location). We
assess how they are going to work as part of our team and that is a big factor.
We do often look for work experience, a part-time job or having done vacation
work, as evidence of how holistic this person is, trying to give us a bigger picture
of the whole business. It is such an important quality that we need in our people is
relationship building ability. So, the technical excellence is taken as a given; we
expect everybody to be able to have that and do that, but that X factor, that quality
that somebody has that says they are a well-rounded person…
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Current student/positive
I think not so much. I think we get more out of our non-accounting subjects such as
teamwork and all that sort of stuff. We have had to do presentations and that’s
good because you have got to bounce all your ideas off. And problem solving and
all that sort of stuff, but I think, for me, it is more of a non-business degree,
because management behaviour and all that sort of stuff where you really look at
all the other avenues and diversity, that’s probably where those subjects come in
stronger.
Employer/negative
I think that’s a skill that I guess you only get through experience, the capacity to
work with various age groupings and with people who come from vastly different
backgrounds. The problem we have in universities is when you are working in
groups you are probably working with some of your mates; you have all come from
the same place.
Initiative and enterprise
When stakeholder participants discussed initiative and enterprise, the most common topics
mentioned were business acumen, knowledge, planning, and building. Employers referred
to vision, imagination, seeing the big picture, and adding value; they were particularly
keen to see initiative and enterprise in their recruits, but also to build into their graduate
programs opportunities for the recognition and nurturing of such skills within the
workplace. The two areas of a) initiative and enterprise, and b) business acumen,
knowledge, planning and building were widely commented on by the stakeholders. These
were seen as significant non-technical skills that led to a graduate having the ability to
stand out from their peers both in recruitment and their career trajectory through the firm.
Table 5.9 Frequency of comments defining initiative and enterprise
Number
Initiative and enterprise
35
Business acumen, knowledge, planning, building
21
Ethics, discretionary behaviour
4
Vision, imagination, seeing the big picture, adding value
6
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Table 5.10 Comments on initiative and enterprise by different stakeholder groups
Current
students
Graduate
Employer
Total
Initiative and enterprise
3
5
27
35
Business acumen, knowledge,
planning, building
0
4
17
21
Ethics, discretionary behaviour
0
1
3
4
Vision, imagination, seeing the big
picture, adding value
0
2
4
6
Comments about initiative and enterprise focus on the ability to think for oneself, to have
some commercial acumen, and to be prepared to take the lead and make some decisions
based on graduates’ assessment of the environment in which they are working. Employers,
especially, emphasised the value of having final-year subjects where students had to deal
with ambiguity and ‘grey’ areas; these were deemed helpful in preparing students for their
graduate roles.
Employer/positive
I think a bit of commercial acumen is pretty important. The really good grads are
the ones that can think quite commercially and perhaps they are a little bit savvy in
terms of understanding our commercial situation. . . . Is this a successful company?
If so, why? Are they growing, are they struggling? If so, what industry are they in?
Does it all actually hang together and make sense? What economic factors are
impacted on the industry that they are in? So anyone who can think along those
lines very much applies a bit of a holistic approach because audit is about
understanding the risk of the environment and that sort of thing. So the quicker
people can come to grips with the environment that they are working in, the better
they are going to be at what they do.
They generally have got a lot of initiative, ability to work on their own. The area
that I work in, we tend to say to people “Here’s a job, go away and do it and come
back when it’s finished”. There is a lot of mentoring goes on, but very little over
the shoulder –“What are you doing, what are you doing?” Once we give them
something to do, we expect them to do it and to do it well.
Employer/negative
I’m finding they can’t actually think for themselves; they want you to do their
thinking for them. If anything, their uni results show that they have got initiative,
but it doesn’t seem to come into the real world.
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Graduate/positive
Yeah, and if there is a way in which we can imbue people with more commercial
acumen. I understand theory is essential in terms of if real-world circumstances
change then you have that basic knowledge of how things should be structured and
organised in your mind and what financials should look like, but yeah, I think it is
a good step to have some contact with real organisations during your studies and
yes, get that commercial acumen from first-hand experience.
I think anything that gets you to not just accept and learn numbers but question and
think outside and expand. No formula or compliance is going to cover every issue
that you come across. There are going to be grey areas, there are going to be
things that people have never dealt with before and no law or technical
commandment [has] ever foreseen arising, so you have to be able to have a greater
understanding so that you yourself can make a judgment on applying the intent.
Problem solving
Problem solving was perceived as graduates’ ability to apply theory to practice as well as
critical analysis and thinking skills. Employers valued their ability to relate concepts
learned at university to new situations in the workplace, the ability to think for oneself, the
ability to regard critically new information and situations. Theory learned at university
needed to be applied to a range of new problems and contexts and the graduate who had
this ability was in demand. Problem solving was strongly related to being able to apply
theoretical knowledge learned at university to real-life situations encountered in the
workplace. Employers valued highly the ability to apply knowledge from one workplace
context or problem to another.
Table 5.11 Frequency of comments defining problem solving
Number
Problem solving
30
Applying theory into practice
17
Critical analysis, thinking skills
16
Graduate/positive
I think having in your final year subjects like current issues that cause you to, or
allow you to, question the grey areas of accounts and particularly in government –
that probably has been one of the more useful areas that I have looked at. I think
anything that gets you to not just accept and learn numbers but question and think
outside and expand. No formula or compliance is going to cover every issue that
you come across. . . having that capacity to be able to not just go “The book said it
had to be this”, because so often the book can just go out the window…
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. . . so it was quite weird to not be able to apply what I have learnt from university
even though it is necessary to be able to formulate an analysis on the company’s
financials, it just wasn’t what I expected. Like I found uni more challenging than
some of the stuff I do here.
Current student/positive
And problem solving and all that sort of stuff, but I think, for me, it is more of a
non-business degree, because management behaviour and all that sort of stuff
where you really look at all the other avenues and diversity and that’s probably
where those subjects come in stronger.
Yeah, I think with some subjects we do actually, like the accounting specialisation,
they help with communication, teamwork, problem solving, not really selfmanagement, that’s kind of left up to us whether we do it or not.
I think that it is not so much emphasised in the actual coursework but more when
you have the opportunity to do group assignments for accounting, that’s when
these non-technical skills really come out. … Teamwork, communication skills,
problem solving more so than the theory that’s covered in lectures.
Employer/negative
Communication skills is something we expect a little bit better and also, I guess,
some of the problem solving skills as well, the ability to think through options and
then to come to some conclusions, not necessarily decisions. . . .So problem solving
stuff. “Hey, what is going on here. This is what I see. It is not right. These are the
problems, these are some options, here’s a recommendation.”
Graduate/negative
I think the problem solving isn’t developed enough at uni and I think that could be
expanded.
Technological competence
There were a total of 20 comments on the field of technological competence, where
employers singled out the areas of IT generally and skills in Excel use. Often, however,
there was disappointment in the Excel competence of graduates. There was also mention
of mastery of accounting software as a desirable technological skill. Employers observed
that as graduates are now Gen Y their technological competence is at such a high level
graduates may in fact feel bored or frustrated by the lesser technical challenges offered in
the workplace.
Employer/positive
Because of the Gen Y, and we are dealing with the bulk of Gen Y, technically they
are quite competent because naturally when they come out into the world they have
all the technical changes like YouTube and you name it, the internet is all there, so
they are quite adapted to the new environment. The problem with the organisation
is that we don’t have the right tools, or have the tools’ up-to-date technology, and
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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they might find themselves very bored.
Graduate/positive
But it goes back to, I know what’s happening in the assignment because I have got
the foundations, and to me once you have used one computer accounting software,
you should be able to use all of them and you should be able to understand what
goes on behind the scenes.
The major non-technical skills were computer-based (Word, Excel, general usage
of computer software/hardware), and with as my (sic) degree had a basic IT based
component not just pure accounting, I received sufficient skills.
Current student/positive
Technology, yes was mild [in accounting units].
Graduate/negative
Interviewer: So, did you have sufficient levels of technical and non-technical skills
when you started? You said you probably would have liked a bit more…
Respondent: Yeah, well, for example Excel definitely, and I was pretty confident at
Excel, like I did an advanced Excel for my first learning one, and even that wasn’t
enough.
Planning and organising
Planning was perceived as the ability to plan and organise as well as time and project
management skills.
Table 5.12 Frequency of comments defining planning
Number
Planning and organising
16
Time, project management skills
5
The comments from many employers about planning indicate that many of the nontechnical skills mentioned previously are not viewed in isolation but as a package.
Teamwork, self-management, and having life experiences external to study were all linked
with planning skills:
Employer/positive
I think there probably needs to be some part of the curriculum that factors in that
they will need certain other skills when they commence working straight away. To
give them that grounding, even if they come at graduate level and not
undergraduate level. We have somebody who graduated in December that’s
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already out doing client work because she has been here as an undergraduate for a
couple of years. She is out there doing client work and she is responsible for that
job and that wouldn’t happen with a normal graduate. There are no modules
within the commerce degree that provide them with some sort of soft skills, whether
it be being able to interact with and building relationships or working relationships
or managing your time or managing work objectives and things like that and being
able to meet deadlines.
Employer/negative
But if they struggle in research and ask ongoing questions where it is not actually
sinking in, then, to put it from a practice perspective, it blows out the cost to the
client of which the practice can’t pass that onto the client, so they lose money.
Non-technical skills – their role in recruitment, training and
employment
The analysis of stakeholder comments about non-technical skills revealed that they
considered non-technical skills within three contexts: recruitment, training, and on-going
employment as an accountant. In all three contexts, they deemed communication,
teamwork and self-management to be the most desirable and satisfactory. They considered
communication and problem solving the most inadequately developed and posing the
greatest limitations on graduates in both their skill sets and their career development. Table
5.13 below, presents frequencies of comments on the evaluation of non-technical skills
Table 5.13 Frequency of comments about stakeholders’ evaluations of non-technical
skills
Desirable
Satisfactory
Inadequate
Limitations
Total
Communication,
presentation
10
7
9
8
34
Initiative and enterprise
5
2
1
1
9
Planning and organising
0
1
2
2
5
Problem solving
5
3
6
7
21
Self-management
8
6
1
3
18
Teamwork, good
interpersonal skills, fit
organisation ethos
9
7
1
5
22
Technological competence
0
4
0
1
5
The following are illustrative extracts from student focus groups:
You have to be able to think outside the square with some things; you can’t just
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45
look at everything from the one approach . . . if you are given a job at work and
you have got a certain time to do it in, you have got to organise yourself to make
sure that task is completed on time.
I think presentation skills are really important when you go into the workforce and
I don’t think we do enough of that here.
Employers were very keen to discuss the range of non-technical skills they looked for at
the recruitment stage, in training, and in ongoing accounting employment. These are
summarised in Table 5.14. They discussed communication, self-management, and
teamwork most frequently. The category ‘recruits’ in Table 5.14 refers to comments on
recruits as employers found them, the category ‘recruitment processes’ how they recruited
for particular attributes and finally, the category ‘ongoing employment’ lists skills
mentioned as important for graduates’ ongoing employment in the organisation. For
example, 9 interviewees cited self-management as the most important non-technical skill
they look for in recruits, 16 indicated communication skills as the most important in the
recruitment process, and 6 cited self-management as important for ongoing employment.
Table 5.14 Frequency of comments about non-technical skills in the recruitment
process
Recruits
Recruitment
processes
Ongoing
employment
Total
Communication, presentation
5
16
3
24
Initiative and enterprise
2
7
1
10
Planning and organising
1
2
0
3
Problem solving
1
7
1
9
Self-management
9
17
6
32
Teamwork, good interpersonal
skills, fit organisation ethos
8
12
4
24
Technological competence
1
0
2
3
In recruitment, employers used non-technical skills as a discriminator when evaluating
graduates with similar grades or even slightly dissimilar grades. An extended extract from
a Big 4 accounting firm, as reported below, encapsulates much of what employers were
telling us across the country: grades are good but not everything. They want graduates who
are well rounded, who have experience in areas other than study, whether it be
volunteering, part-time work, or, for example, sport, so that when those graduates are
being prepared for management positions they have the ability to develop relationships
that are the basis for growing and sustaining a business. The technical ability is assumed;
however, it is the non-technical ability that will distinguish the outstanding from the good
graduate.
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What we are looking for is people who are well-rounded, so if you have got
students who have got outstanding results, that’s all they have done. So if their CV
indicates all they do is study, study, study, we would be a bit concerned about that
person. Their grades would probably get them through the first screening, but
there would be some really serious questions asked about that person’s capability
in the longer term. We do often look for work experience, a part-time job, or
having done vacation work, as evidence of how holistic this person is, trying to
give us a bigger picture of the whole. I’ll give you an example: we were looking at
some sample applications last week and we had two CVs in front of us and one was
an outstanding student, outstanding results, but no work experience, hadn’t ever
had a part-time job, didn’t do any volunteer work, really was just focused on study.
We had another young guy whose results weren’t as good as the first one, but had
such a long list of things that he was doing from volunteering on a whole range of
things, getting involved in student activities on campus, part-time work and we
said, that’s probably the one we want. It is such an important quality that we need
in our people is relationship building ability; so when you get through to the very
senior levels, the senior managers and our partnered ranks, it is all about
relationship building and then working and an ability to have broad relationships.
So, the technical Excellence is taken as a given; we expect everybody to be able to
have that and do that, but that X factor, that quality that somebody has that says
they are a well-rounded person
Comments from employers in other sectors were similar, also suggesting that grades were
not the paramount consideration in recruitment. For example, a public sector employer and
a mid-tier/niche accounting firm shared this view:
But having said that, you need to contextualise it because grades certainly aren’t
everything and our recruitment and screening process, as the same for the
chartered firms, looks also at a variety of other attributes and skills that we are
interested in, particularly communication skills, team building skills, teamwork
skills, those types of softer skills which you can’t see in a set of grades Obviously
their grades are important. However, I am not looking for someone that’s come
through with high distinctions or distinction., I am looking for more consistency to
their grades . . . And it is very important, from my point of view, when I recruit I
am looking for well-rounded employees to come into the firm. It is important that
they fit the cultural aspects of our firm as well. Yes, they need to have some
technical ability obviously because that’s what they are going to be doing in the
future, but they also need to have that confidence in themselves, the ability to be
able to communicate clearly and succinctly and to conduct themselves in a
professional manner and know what’s required in a professional services firm.
Acquiring non-technical skills: whose responsibility is this?
Stakeholders discussed responsibility for the acquisition of each of the non-technical skills
and the results are reported in Table 5.15. The overwhelming view of interviewees is that it
is the university’s responsibility to develop non-technical skills in graduates. The only
exception is teamwork, where the views were about 50:50 between the employer and the
university being responsible.
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Table 5.15 Responsibility for acquisition of non-technical skills
Employer's
role
Graduate aptitude,
responsibility
Partnership
University's
role
Total
Communication,
presentation
7
2
3
16
28
Initiative and
enterprise
2
4
1
11
18
Planning and
organising
3
0
0
4
7
Problem solving
4
1
2
16
23
Self-management
5
2
1
9
17
Teamwork, good
interpersonal
skills, fit
organisation ethos
10
2
2
11
25
Technological
competence
2
0
0
7
9
The results in Table 5.15 provide a strong endorsement of the need for universities to
develop non-technical skills in students before they graduate. This poses a significant
challenge for accounting educators in finding space in an already crowded accounting
curriculum.
Figure 5.1 below reports the views of 23 accounting educators who completed the survey
we discuss in Chapter 6. These results show that academics consider problem solving is a
skill that they develop and assess effectively. And they rank communication second in
terms of development and assessment. But the results in Table 5.5 suggest that there is a
divergence of opinion between how well academics perceive they develop communication
skills and the views of the stakeholders interviewed.
A comparison of Table 5.15 and Figure 5.1 reveals some interesting observations.
Teamwork and initiative and enterprise skills considered by interviewees as important for
universities to develop are the two skills that academics feel are the most difficult for them
to develop in students. While problem solving is a skill academics feel they can effectively
develop and assess as expected by interviewees. In one of the dissemination workshops
held in Perth in April 2009, participants considered the best approach was to embed these
skills within the accounting program. The use of case studies was seen as an effective tool
to assist in the development of these and other skills, such as understanding how
accounting interacts with other aspects of an organisation rather than having a silo
approach to their role.
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Figure 5.1 Accounting educators’ views on non-technical skills
Academics’ views about their capacity to develop (blue) and assess (red) non-technical
skills on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (Excellent)
Stakeholders also discussed the ongoing nature of accountants’ training throughout their
career in both the technical and non-technical areas. Table 5.16 shows that ongoing
training is seen as important for communication, teamwork and self-management. With
regard to future skills, most interviewees focused on teamwork, particularly in terms of
leadership, communication and initiative and enterprise.
Table 5.16 Frequency of comments about ongoing training and future skills
Ongoing
training
Future
skills
Communication, presentation
12
9
Initiative and enterprise
5
9
Planning and organising
1
0
Problem solving
6
4
Self-management
11
2
Teamwork, good interpersonal skills, fit organisation
ethos
15
12
Technological competence
2
4
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Stakeholders considered that for the working professional accountant, teamwork and good
interpersonal skills were the most important attributes in terms of career path. A public
sector employee commented on the importance of preparing graduates for management
roles from the outset, using training based on typologies such as the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator and emotional intelligence. The broader view taken was that, regardless of the
accounting field, these non-technical skills were paramount to the successful execution of
the technical requirements.
After that we continue to train them, but because their role is changing we
actually start emphasising managerial. Even in the first couple of years we kind
of pepper the courses with some managerial training, so we start off with selfawareness stuff, some Myers Briggs type TMI kind of instruments, getting
greater awareness of how they act and behave and the emotional intelligence.
Then we try to introduce them progressively to things like negotiating skills
courses and how to manage your time and so, all those kind of non-technical, but
really important practical skills that they actually need to do their job. . . . In my
mind, my personal view, there seems to be an undue emphasis in their education
on the technical without sufficient emphasis on the non-technical as far as the
verbal and written communication skills. Because you can’t operate as an
auditor unless you can actually communicate effectively both in writing and
verbally, and then, a part of communication being able to negotiate, being able
to deal with conflict, particularly if you are an auditor, all those soft skills, and a
lot of them certainly aren’t prepared for that through their higher education, so a
lot of that we have to actually provide that training and support.
Technical Skills
Basic technical skills
Most employers discussed technical skills. In order of frequency, the skills were tax, debits
and credits, auditing and understanding financial reports, and preparing financial
statements. Table 5.17 provides the frequencies of occurrence for all technical skills
mentioned. Employers generally did not expect competence in specialist areas such as tax
or audit, and were willing to provide necessary training in such specialist areas. What they
did want was basic competence and understanding of debits and credits and preparation
and analysis of financial statements, namely basic financial literacy.
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Table 5.17 Frequency of comments on defining basic technical skills
Number
Basic, practical accounting skills
42
Accounts payable
3
Audit
8
Consolidations
2
Variance analysis
1
Entries, debits and credits
11
R&D incentives
1
Reconciliations
4
Retrieving information from the system
2
Superannuation
5
Tax
13
Transactional activity
3
Trusts and companies
2
Understanding financial reports, preparing financial statements
9
The extracts below indicate a strong need for basic skills but a willingness by employers to
train graduates in specialist skill areas. Employers expected rudimentary knowledge of
technical skills and not much more. What they did expect, however, was for graduates to
have a keen willingness and capacity to learn new technical skills, based on a solid
framework of theoretical understanding gained at university. Employers perceive technical
skills not as a set of knowledge or content, but as a capacity and willingness to learn and
master that new knowledge. By contrast, new graduates were concerned that, in their time
at university, they hadn’t learned everything required of them in the workplace.
Employer/positive
I just cared that they could understand the balance sheet, through to the P & L. So
they always started off reconciling, doing a bank rec, and understanding the
importance of the bank rec. If the GL isn’t reconciled then the profit is probably
wrong, and if the profit is wrong then of course we are wasting our time. Well the
ones that we have are great and we don’t keep ones who aren’t. In the face of the
much-talked-about skill shortage, it is not viable to keep people who can’t be
productive at a technical level, so we do performance reviews twice yearly
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Graduate/positive
Interviewer: What technical skills were important when you started and has this
changed?
Respondent: As an undergraduate I had sufficient technical skills expected of me
for my level
Employer/neutral
What does happen is different to what probably should and that is that the
university teaches technical skills to people that will probably not use what they
have learnt to a large degree. They (the graduates) will learn technical skills in
certain areas of accounting that may be used say in a Big-4 firm at a higher level
and it may be some years, if ever, before the graduates are going to use those
skills. Certainly in smaller country firms, a lot of what they learn at university will
never be applied in their practical work and that’s where we find that TAFE does a
pretty good job in teaching those technical skills, if you like, the day-to-day
practicalities of accounting for small business. The university is very good at
teaching at a higher level and possibly that’s too high for most of our students. But
anyway, what’s the university’s role? I would like to think that the university’s role
was giving people the skills to apply in the workplace, but I don’t know that that’s
happening.
Employer/negative
I would say eight out of ten guys can’t and don’t know how to deal with a bank
reconciliation when they leave university. My thought is that they probably should
know how to do that coming out of university…
They are used to doing automated journal entries on systems and things, but if you
ask them to do a T account, I say “Well tell me where we are wrong here?” They
just don’t know how to do it; they can’t do it, and I am not that old.
If they can recall some of their basic accounting processes, it is probably a bit of a
surprise and you certainly have a reasonably low expectation of their technical
skills. Occasionally they will surprise you and occasionally you will think, “OK,
they actually do recall some of this and can apply some”. But generally speaking
we wouldn’t expect anything more than a fairly rudimentary knowledge of
accounting and auditing.
We don’t expect them to know our system, but we expect them to be able to learn it
quickly and they have just got to know their accounting basics, debits from credits
and other things, I guess, through accounting problems.
Graduate/negative
A degree means you can learn, not necessarily have skills to undertake any
position at any demanded salary level…
The university should endeavor to create work ready students by the end of their
degrees. Most students these days focus on doing as little as possible at uni and it
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hurts them in the real world.
Current student/negative
When they start in real life applying what they learn is quite different to what they
had to learn at uni. So, in terms of technical skills it is being approached not from
a practical basis, it is really theory based, it is not based on practical and I think
universities should place more emphasis on training our practical skills.
Basic technical skills, according to different stakeholder groups
Employers and graduates had more comments to make about the basic technical skills than
current students. This is not surprising given the latter’s lack of experience in the
workplace and the demands therein. The same four areas of audit, tax, debits and credits,
and understanding financial reports were uppermost in the frequency of comments made
about basic technical skills by stakeholders.
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Table 5.18 Frequency of comments about the basic skills by category of interviewee
Current students
Graduate
Employer
Basic, practical accounting skills
4
9
29
Accounts payable
0
0
3
Audit
0
2
10
Consolidations
0
0
2
Variance analysis
0
0
1
Entries, debits and credits
1
2
8
R&D incentives
0
1
0
Reconciliations
0
0
4
Retrieving information from the
system
0
1
1
Superannuation
0
1
4
Tax
1
3
9
Transactional activity
0
1
2
Trusts and companies
1
0
1
Understanding financial reports,
preparing financial statements
0
1
8
Comments on basic technical skills by different levels of employer
organisations
When categorising employers into Big 4, mid tier/niche, professional associations,
corporations and not for profit, the main distinguishing feature was that basic practical
accounting skills were mentioned by all except the not-for-profit category; basic
accounting skills and audit were mentioned most frequently by the Big 4, while
representatives of corporations referred most frequently to understanding financial
statements.
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Table 5.19 Frequency of comments about the basic skills by employer group
Big 4
Midtier/niche
Professional
association
Corporations
Not for
profit
Basic, practical
accounting skills
7
4
4
8
0
Accounts payable
0
0
0
1
0
Audit
6
3
1
0
0
Consolidations
0
0
1
1
0
Variance analysis
0
0
0
1
0
Entries, debits and credits
2
0
0
2
0
R&D incentives
1
0
0
0
0
Reconciliations
1
0
0
1
0
Retrieving information
from the system
0
0
0
1
0
Superannuation
0
1
0
1
0
Tax
2
1
1
1
0
Transactional activity
0
0
0
2
0
Understanding financial
reports, preparing
financial statements
1
0
1
4
0
IT software skills in accounting
As previously mentioned in relation to the non-technical skill of technological competence
and in relation to the technical skills, general IT competence and Excel were, in particular,
the areas most discussed. Good computing skills, understanding of IT infrastructure and
computer based programs such as Word, Excel and MYOB were discussed.
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Table 5.20 Frequency of comments on defining IT software skills
Number
Ability to use Excel, MYOB and related accounting software
programs
30
Excel
6
Employer/positive
We would also expect them to have good computing skills and at least a knowledge
of some of the accounting systems that are around. I note that some of them have
used MYOB, which should help them to get up to speed with the ones we use.
When we recruit one of the double degree [students], skill sets that I am really
interested in is someone with an IT flavour to their degree that they can actually
understand and negotiate their way around an IT system; they can speak IT and
translate that into audit. There is no more of the old fashioned paper trail to follow
and I need people – they don’t have to be IT boffins because we will always
supplement with IT specialist audit resources for the really complex cases – but for
the kind of second order clients, and that’s what I am saying, is more and more I’m
going to get these second order clients, I need people who have a bit of IT. But I
certainly feel a little exposed at the moment thinking about the direction that the
sector is going with its IT infrastructure and whether or not I will be able to
actually cover that off in the next five and 10 years unless I get these types of
people.
Graduate/positive
… so the accountant has to understand MYOB, a bit of accounting knowledge
would be Excellent …. So, I reckon the accounting foundation is very important
and accounting software.
Current student/negative
I think in the real world, accounting does have such a large technological
foundation to it, yet in university we primarily approach it from a theoretical
perspective so it is not really producing graduates with the skills that are in
demand I don’t think.
Advanced accounting
Employers generally did not indicate an expectation of advanced levels of accounting
knowledge as they provided extensive training through their graduate or on-going training
programs. They did, however, require the ability to keep up with rapid change in both
content and complex processes.
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Acquiring technical skills: whose responsibility is this?
When different stakeholders were asked whose responsibility it was to nurture the
acquisition of skills, the two key groups deemed to be responsible were the employers and
the universities, with 58% considering technical skills the responsibility of universities.
This is similar to the responses about non-technical skills as reported in Table 5.15. These
data are useful for accounting educators when considering the shared responsibility of
universities and employers for the development of technical and non-technical skills.
Table 5.21 Frequency of comments about the responsibility for technical skill
development
Number
Employer's role
17
Graduate aptitude, responsibility
2
Partnership
3
TAFE model builds skills
1
University's role
32
Total
55
Basic technical skills in the context of recruitment and ongoing work as an
accountant
Employers discussed basic technical skills also in terms of training, recruitment and
ongoing work as an accountant, just as they did in relation to the non-technical skills.
When referring to training, employers commented more frequently about the need to
acquire basic technical skills, followed by ongoing training, with minimal comments about
their role in developing future skills. In identifying the basic technical skills required,
employers referred most frequently to debits and credits, followed by audit and tax; the
latter two areas were identified frequently as topics for ongoing training.
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Comments about training in technical skills
Table 5.22, below, classifies employers’ comments on the need to acquire basic technical
skills, to train further, and the nature of skills required in the future, and provides their
frequency.
Table 5.22 Frequency of comments about training in basic skills
Acquiring
skills
Ongoing
training
Future skills
Basic, practical accounting skills
29
16
5
Accounts payable
1
2
0
Audit
4
6
0
Consolidations
1
0
0
Variance analysis
1
0
0
Entries, debits and credits
6
2
0
Reconciliations
2
2
0
Superannuation
0
3
0
Tax
5
5
2
Transactional activity
0
1
1
Trusts and companies
0
1
0
Understanding financial reports, preparing
financial statements
4
1
0
Audit
In relation to auditing, employers had limited expectations that universities would provide
anything more than a basic skill level. Possessing the skill was not a discriminator in
recruitment. Audit skill development was an area employers were prepared to take on as
their training responsibility. Most employers had their own audit programs, to which they
introduced graduates at induction.
Employer/positive
I’ll just preface the remarks. When we recruit, one of the prerequisites is that
they have a degree that allows them to obtain CPA or CA status. This is for the
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financial auditors; now, to be very specific, it is not the same case for
performance auditors. So, we know that they will have relevant subjects in
accounting and auditing, and whatever, such that they could get the CA or CPA
qualification.
Employer/negative
We divvy it up because we have accreditation processes where we go to the
universities and look at their accounting syllabuses and we say, “OK, you’re
doing tax, you’re doing audit, you’re doing financial reporting, that’s fine”, or
“Do a bit more because here’s where you bolt onto us and, if you don’t meet that
point and there is a gap, your candidates will not be successful in our
professional accounting program.”
Entries, debits & credits
Whereas employers wanted basic debits and credits knowledge in graduates, they
commented frequently that their expectations were not fully met. Some commented that
graduates needed to spend time in induction and training covering the most basic level of
debits and credits training. Employers were concerned they had to teach graduates skill
areas that the universities should have covered.
Employer/positive
Being able to demonstrate that they can do basic things such as entries into
accounting systems, bank reconciliations, understanding financial reports, etc.
Employer/negative
They have absolutely no idea, none whatsoever, half of them don’t know a debit
from a credit, so we have to start at the very basics.
…, they don’t know a debit from a credit, and these are accounting graduates
and we have got to assume zero knowledge on these guys. Well, if it was a perfect
world, I would like to see the universities doing us out of a whole lot of the stuff
that we are finding ourselves doing in the first 14 weeks of the graduate’s
induction. It troubles me that we feel we have to teach accounting graduates, go
back over the debits and credits and what is a balance sheet and what is a profit
and loss statement – that troubles me no end that we need to do that.
Tax
Tax was another area where the expectation of employers was that basic knowledge should
be provided by universities, while they would manage the specialist knowledge. GST was
an area that graduates mentioned they were unprepared for in their university courses.
Graduate/positive
Knowledge of Australian tax and accounting standards
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Employer/negative
I am not sure whether the university is, and look, I am a little bit out of date with
this, perhaps, but up until very recently the universities weren’t teaching anything
about GST. Now, I know it was at least four or five years into the GST and there
was nothing being taught at university. Now, it may well be that there is a little bit
of that going on now, but does the university show students how to complete a
Business Activity Statement? Does it run through an Australian Income Tax
Return? It does teach students about Income Tax Law, that’s exactly right, but does
it teach the students on the application of that law in the preparation of the
paperwork that follows on from that?
Current student/negative
Yeah, well, I have done the taxation law subject and an employer can see that on
my transcript and see that I have a credit for that and think, “You must know tax”,
but really all I learnt in that was the theory of it and how certain things, if you pay
tax or not, in the period …..
Financial reporting
Financial reporting was another area where the expectation of employers was that basic
training should be provided by universities and that this training should also include
developing an ability to do certain basic data entry and reports with some level of financial
literacy.
Comparison of metropolitan and regional stakeholders
When undertaking the study, every effort was made to engage with both metropolitan and
regional stakeholders. All the evaluative comments about technical and non-technical
skills from each cohort showed some differentiation in some areas, but in aggregate there
was not a significant difference in the responses from metropolitan and regional
stakeholders, with almost equal number of positive and negative comments from both
metropolitan and regional stakeholders.
Table 5.23 Frequency of evaluative comments in total from metropolitan and
regional respondents
Positive
Negative
Neutral
Metropolitan
31
30
12
Regional
8
7
4
Conclusion
The analysis of interview transcripts delivered strong messages about the importance of
non-technical skills in areas of recruitment, training and ongoing workplace skills
development. Communication, in all its forms, coupled with teamwork, problem solving,
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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self-management, interpersonal skills, and initiative and enterprise were highly sought
after in graduates and also made a difference in advancement within the workplace. These
skills were often used as discriminators by employers in recruitment. When faced with the
choice of applicants of similar academic merit, employers chose the student who displayed
strengths in the non-technical areas.
In relation to technical skills, employers generally appeared to have modest expectations.
They looked for general understanding and competence and a willingness and a capacity to
learn, but were content or resigned to undertake much of the technical training themselves.
Those employers working in small business and to some extent in regional areas, required
stronger technical skills in graduates, given their limited resources for in-house training.
On the issue of whose role it is to develop both technical and non-technical skills, there
was a clear majority who perceived this as being the responsibility of the universities.
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Chapter 6 – Findings from university surveys
Introduction
In this chapter we discuss the second stage of the project: the survey of universities. This
stage involved seeking information about how universities around the nation developed
and assessed the nine non-technical skills that were identified in the first stage as being
most important for professional accountants. Our approach was to send the survey to a
designated ‘coordinator’ at each university, someone known by one of the project team,
who would take ownership of the survey and ensure that appropriate staff would respond
to it. The high response rate suggests this strategy was a success.
Details of responses
Of the 38 surveys distributed to universities in Australia, a total 20 were returned
representing a response rate of 53%, which was impressive considering that completion of
the survey required several hours. Of the 20 responses received a total of 18 academics
indicated a willingness to share information on a particular strategy/initiative they had
implemented for the teaching/assessment of one of the nine non-technical skills listed in
the survey.
The process of obtaining the details of the eighteen strategies/initiatives individuals/groups
involved many phone calls, teleconferences and emails over several weeks. The original
intention was to select ‘exemplars’ from the set of embedding strategies submitted by
universities. To do this would have required a quality assurance process where evidence
would be gathered about the effectiveness of each strategy, and then matched to a
hierarchy of evidence. For example, the effectiveness of one strategy for improving
student learning might be demonstrated by an amount of informal anecdotal evidence, and
another might have stronger supporting evidence (e.g. systematic student feedback, or
changes in assessment data trends). However, once submissions about strategies were
received, it became clear that most were at varying stages of development and
implementation, and some were too early for explicit and systematically derived evidence
of success to be available.
As a result, a decision was taken for contributors to compile a set of descriptions of their
strategies (for embedding learning of non-technical skills), and allow our colleagues to
form their own judgments about the value of particular strategies for their contexts. We
have not made any judgment about the relative merits of strategies, principally because
there was insufficient clear evidence to do this in many cases. However, the evidence that
was available is included in Volume 2 of this report.
Two criteria were adopted for inclusion of a strategy in the set of examples:
1) The strategy/initiative was put forward by a university lecturer.
2) Enough information was provided (via follow-up interview) to describe the
strategy clearly and, where possible, to furnish any evidence about its
effectiveness.
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62
To provide clear descriptions of the strategies, and to enhance the effectiveness of
dissemination, a standard structure and format was developed, which incorporated key
headings including the following.
Strategy in brief (a summary description)
Non-technical skills aimed to be enhanced
Learning and teaching rationale
Details of learning and teaching strategy
Assessment of learning related to strategy
Evidence available for success of strategy
A summary of the eighteen strategies is reported in the next section, and a complete
description can be found in Volume 2 of this report, with contact details of the relevant
academics who are willing for readers to seek clarification.
Summary of strategies
The strategies range from single easy-to-implement unit/subject level strategies, such as
appointing small-group leaders in weekly tutorial classes, through to program-wide
intensive strategies such as the embedding of communication skills in the Master of
Professional Accounting program at Macquarie University.
Strategy 1: Joint in-class preparation
Strategy in Brief: This is a strategy to improve preparation, learning from, and
participation in tutorials in a mandatory 3rd year auditing unit in the UWA Business
School.
Strategy 2: Interactive and engaging in program learning
Strategy in brief: A teaching strategy used with large groups in a first year level unit at The
University of Queensland to connect in-program learning to practice by tightly aligning
unit elements (lectures, tutorials) better with learning activities and with non-technical
skills development and by making unit elements more interactive and engaging. The unit is
‘Introduction to Management - MGTS1301.
Strategy 3: Integrated first year units
Strategy in brief: A program in first year units of the accounting program, delivered in the
School of Accounting and Corporate Governance at the University of Tasmania, and
characterised by
small group learning environments
lectures that provide in-class activities and emphasise interaction and application
rather than content alone
workshops, central to the program, which enable students to solve problems
assisted by academic staff
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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tutorials that are interactive and make extensive use of group work
The program is complemented by an elective corporate internship program requiring
students to work one, two or five days a week over the semester.
Strategy 4: Mapping embedding and scaffolding teamwork
Strategy in brief: These skills are taught across three units beginning with BUS160
Introduction to Accounting in 1st year, continuing with BUS217 Technical and Accounting
Processes in 2nd year, and culminating in a unit BUS256 Contemporary Financial
Accounting in 3rd year at Murdoch Business School, Murdoch University. The units are
taught by different accounting faculty.
Strategy 5: Joint out of class tutorial preparation
Strategy in brief: In this strategy student leaders rotate on a weekly basis. The strategy is
used in Advanced Financial Accounting (Acc3AFA), Faculty of Law and Management, La
Trobe University, Melbourne (Bundoora) Campus.
Strategy 6: Prison field trip
Strategy in brief: In this activity students visit professional accountants, who are
incarcerated for fraud and related offences, to question them on the reasons for and the
circumstances that led to their fraudulent behaviour; it is offered in the third year unit
Ethics and Financial Services (MAA350), an auditing unit in the School of Accounting,
Economics & Finance, Faculty of Business & Law, Deakin University, Burwood Campus.
Strategy 7: Engagement with practitioners, business plans and case studies
Strategy in brief: A three-pronged strategy employed in the Curtin Business School,
Curtin University of Technology at first year unit level. Students are enabled to develop
and enhance their understanding of the importance of non-technical skills in accounting
and be motivated to acquire both technical and non-technical skills through:
1) interaction with and active participation of practitioners in the unit;
2) a group project (the Business Management Project) that entails compiling a
business plan for the real life subject of a case study; and
3) a competitive voluntary component of the unit in which extra work by teams of
students, if of sufficiently high standard, is recognised and rewarded by a Big 4
accounting firm.
Both technical and problem-solving skills are scaffolded throughout the unit. The
voluntary component enables students to also develop and demonstrate initiative and
enterprise.
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Strategy 8: Written communication research and referencing skills
Strategy in brief: A three-part, compulsory assignment designed to enable students to
develop and enhance written communication, research and referencing skills; taught in the
first year unit Accounting for Managers, (BUSN1001), at Flinders University.
Strategy 9: Problem based learning and reflective practice in business
information systems
Strategy in brief: A strategy that combines principles of team-based learning (TBL),
problem-based learning and reflective practice in the compulsory undergraduate unit
Business Information Systems Foundations (INFS 1000), which is a prerequisite to the
accredited unit Business Information Systems (INFS2001), at The University of Sydney.
Strategy 10: Teamwork skills
Strategy in brief: Students in the Masters of Professional Accounting and Masters of
Commerce at The University of Sydney to develop teamwork skills within the classroom
and through various assessment tasks. The techniques include:
contract development skills for individual responsibilities of group members
undertaking group assignment in the unit Management Accounting and Decision
Making (ACCT5002);
documenting outcomes of contracting in the form of minutes of meetings in
advanced units as, for example, in Advanced Financial Reporting (ACC6010);
peer weighting and creating and grading linkages between the different parts of
group assignments; and
the capstone unit Contemporary Issues in Auditing (ACCT6007), available as a
major subject area in the Master of Professional Accounting and Master of
Commerce, illustrates some of the methods used in developing teamwork within
the classroom through assessment tasks.
Strategy 11: Planning, organizing, self-management, teamwork and lifelong
learning
Strategy in brief: A strategy to embed development and enhancement of non-technical
skills (planning and organising, self-management, teamwork, lifelong learning) into an
assignment in management accounting without sacrificing content, used at Swinburne
University of Technology in Management Decision Making (HBC222), a mandatory unit
for accounting and management majors, an elective for everyone else.
Strategy 12: Presentation skills and teamwork
Strategy in brief: In this strategy, used in the undergraduate unit Auditing and Assurance
(HBC 225), in the Bachelor of Business course at Swinburne University of Technology,
students prepare in teams for group presentations but are marked individually.
Presentations are assessed only for presentation skills, not content, and they precede the
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
65
submission of group essays, usually on the same topic. (The strategy is also used in the
postgraduate unit Company auditing HBC 614). Students may also be required to write a
short piece identifying the links between activities in the course and the development of
non-technical skills. Their reflections are marked individually.
Strategy 13: Communication
Strategy in brief: The Language for Professional Communication in Accounting (LPCA)
in the Master of Accounting (MAcc) program at Macquarie University is a strategic
collaboration between Macquarie University accounting subjects specialists and language
teachers at the Centre for Macquarie English (CME). The strategy uses team teaching and
team marking to embed teaching of non-technical skills in the majority of the disciplines
(altogether 13 units) of the MAcc program.
Strategy 14: Problem-based learning and teamwork
Strategy in brief: This strategy incorporates problem-based group work into the subject’s
teaching objective, requiring students to relate the subject matter to the real world, to
report regularly or at set times to instructors on progress, to peer assess oral presentations
and to peer weight contributions to group work. The strategy is used with variations at
Macquarie University in some undergraduate accounting units of study as well as in a
postgraduate accounting unit of study. Here it is illustrated in relation to Financial
Statement Analysis (ACCG350) as taught since 2002 (based on Radich, Wright & Howells
2007).
Strategy 15: Foundation skills development unit
The strategy in brief: Personal and Professional Skills in Business (BU1005) is a new core
unit in the Bachelor of Business course at James Cook University; it focuses on developing
a foundation skill base for a successful university experience and on providing students
with a critical appreciation and understanding of the complex set of skills required in the
workplace (from JCU – Studyfinder,
http://secure.jcu.edu.au/app/studyfinder/?subject=BU1005).
Strategy 16: Critical thinking development strategy
Strategy in brief: A strategy developed for the third year undergraduate unit Accounting
Theory (CO3013), at James Cook University designed to enable students to develop and
enhance the ability to discuss accounting theory and research paradigms critically as
theory applies to the real world. The strategy utilises assessable student contributions to
and participation in an electronic debate centring on Nola Buhr’s thought-provoking
working paper ‘Accounting: it lifts and separates’.
Strategy 17: A strategy to Integrate core content and communication skills
development
Strategy in brief: A strategy to integrate, as far as possible, the teaching and learning of
targeted non-technical skills (routine, analytical and appreciative skills) with the learning
of core content in the first-year accounting course (Introductory Financial Accounting,
ACCG 105) at Macquarie University. There are three content-based written assignments,
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66
preceded by compulsory, but ungraded, exercises intended to prepare students for the final
writing-up of the assignment tasks. Answers are written in the format of business
documents. The compulsory exercises are content-focused and modelled on tasks used in
language teaching to promote assimilation and transformation of new knowledge. The
exercises and assignments scaffold the learning process in a variety of ways.
Strategy 18: Cognitive apprenticeship in professional auditing using
‘Second Life’
Strategy in brief: Central to this strategy is the use of a technology-enhanced learning
environment, including the multi-user virtual environment ‘Second Life’ as a platform for
machine-based cinema (machinima). This provides a learning context in which both
internal and off-campus students can solve dilemmas against a backdrop of authentic
workplace activities and practices, enabling them to develop higher order thinking skills,
the ability to communicate, work in teams, and solve ill-structured problems in the
advanced core auditing unit Auditing & Professional Practice (ACCT19064) - at Central
Queensland University.
Summary
The eighteen strategies outlined in this chapter constitute approaches to the development
and assessment of non-technical skills in professional accounting programs in Australia.
These are the strategies that respondents to the university survey were willing to share with
the project team. We are indeed very grateful to those colleagues who took the time to
initially complete the survey and then to provide further details of their strategy to the
team. The amount of evidence about the effectiveness of many of these strategies is limited
because many have been used for only one semester. We hope that your interest has been
sparked and that you will seek more detail about the strategies in Volume 2. At the same
time, we are aware that the strategies described here do not represent all that is being done
in developing non-technical skills in professional accounting programs across all
Australian universities. We hope that those who, within the timeframes of our study, were
unable to provide us with details of the strategies they use, will share their knowledge by
contributing such information to the ALTC Exchange
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Chapter 7 – Lessons learned for future projects
Research approach
In this project we adopted a similar research methodology to the Business as Usual
scoping study (Freeman et al. 2008). Our action research involved multiple stakeholders
across Australia who, when interviewed for this project by the project team, engaged in
critical, constructive reflection about the needs of accounting education.
Communicating with key stakeholders
Project team
Three project team meetings were held during the course of the project, one of them prior
to the Australian Business Deans Council Teaching and Learning (ABDCT&L) Network
meeting. These face-to-face meetings were extremely valuable for the success of the
project.
The project leader brought to the Accounting for the future project findings and ‘lessons
learned’ from the Business as Usual project where he was a team member. One such
‘lesson’ was the importance of having an agenda that included a list of items identified at
the previous meeting, as well as strategic and operational issues. Another was the
realization that if members enjoyed working together they were more likely to work
effectively as a team. To engender an atmosphere of fun and goodwill, he ensured that
each team meeting had a social component – either a meal or some drinks at its conclusion.
Teleconferences were held as required and these allowed team members to report on their
activities. The teleconferences were a challenge for the team given the busy schedule of
team members, many of whom hold senior administrative positions at their respective
universities. A suggestion for future project teams is to diarize a regular time for
teleconferences and then cancel when necessary.
Members of the project team had a wide range of skills and backgrounds, including
leadership, qualitative and quantitative research skills, extensive networks among the
profession, professional and industry associations, team-leadership and management skills.
In addition four of the five team members were either current or past associate deans of
teaching and learning and this provided a significant amount of knowledge and experience
in teaching and learning issues, and the fifth team member was an active writer on
accounting education and a former president of the Accounting and Finance Association of
Australia and New Zealand. Further, two members were heads of the accounting
disciplines at their respective universities. The extensive contacts of team members were
extremely important for the success of this project.
External stakeholders
According to the rules of the ALTC, projects with a budget of less than $100,000 are not
required to conduct an external evaluation. However, a few months into the project
Accounting for the future team members decided that appointing an external evaluator
would be prudent and beneficial. Whereas it was too late for significant formative
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
68
evaluation, the engagement of Patrick Boyle as an external evaluator provided valuable
advice prior to Stage Two, and his summative evaluation adds credibility to this project (a
summary of his evaluation is provided in Chapter 9 of this report).
Managing busy people
As noted in the Business as Usual scoping study, “Learning effective ways of accessing
busy people quickly – by email, phone or through personal assistants - is very important as
not all people have the same work practices.” (Freeman et al, 2008, p.37). The single
greatest challenge for the project manager was contacting and arranging with academic
leaders on the project team, as all were extremely busy people with significant
administrative responsibilities. While this was factored into project planning, it did make
arranging teleconferences challenging, as mentioned above.
Ethics applications
There was considerable delay with the start of the project as it was necessary for all
participant universities to give ethics approval, even though this was provided through the
host university. This is an issue that is perhaps best handled by the ALTC,
(notwithstanding different state privacy laws governing ethics approvals). Should it be
necessary for all member universities to give ethics approval if this is provided by the host
university (as it adds considerable time to a project)?
Technology
The project team experienced considerable problems and frustrations in managing the
transmission of the audio recordings of interviews. WebCT was used to share access to
recordings but this was problematic. Whereas a shared commercial site would be more
effective there were concerns about ethical issues to do with commercial sites. In addition
the uploading and downloading of audio files presented challenges. There was also an
issue with incompatible audio equipment where in one case special software was needed to
convert audio files. Therefore, it is suggested that future projects ensure that all team
members use compatible technology like MP3 files for audio recordings.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Chapter 8 – Summary and limitations
Summary
The project started in October 2007, with an ambitious set of goals to be achieved within
12 months. This timeline had to be extended because of the constraints of university
teaching calendars and the demands placed on the project team members. Nevertheless,
although the project took some 18 months to complete, the evaluation statement in Chapter
9 confirms that the project has achieved its major goals.
The level of engagement from external stakeholders and university colleagues in
Accounting for the future has been extremely valuable. The project team has a significant
amount of data that, besides what is presented in this report, will serve as a valuable
resource for future conference and journal papers, in keeping with its extended
dissemination strategy.
The analysis of interview transcripts in Stage One of the project delivered strong messages
about the importance of non-technical skills in areas of recruitment, training and ongoing
workplace skills development. Communication, in all its forms, coupled with teamwork,
problem solving, self-management, interpersonal skills and initiative and enterprise were
highly sought after in graduates and also made a difference in advancement within the
workplace. These skills were often used as discriminators in recruitment when employers
were faced with a choice of applicants of similar academic merit; employers chose the
student who displayed strengths in the non-technical areas. As for technical skills,
employers generally had modest expectations. They looked for general understanding and
competence and a willingness and a capacity to learn, but were content or resigned to
undertake much of the technical training themselves. Those stakeholders working in small
business, and to some extent in regional areas, required stronger technical skills in
graduates because of their limited facility for in-house training. On the issue of who was
responsible for developing both technical and non-technical skills, there was a clear
expectation that this was the role of universities.
In Stage Two of the project eighteen strategies were solicited, providing a variety of
approaches to the development and assessment of non-technical skills in professional
accounting programs in Australia. These are by no means a complete synopsis of strategies
being practiced around Australia; they are a sample that respondents to the university
survey were willing to share with the project team. We are grateful to colleagues who took
the time to complete the survey and then to provide further details of their strategy to the
team. As noted in Chapter 6, the amount of evidence about their effectiveness is limited
given that many have been implemented recently.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Limitations
In a project with a budget of $100,000 and a limited timeline, it was possible to interview
only a small sample of stakeholders from representative groups across Australia. We
included ample representatives from large, medium and small-size accounting firms, and
the corporate for-profit sector, but few representatives from small business and the not-forprofit and public sectors.
Time and resource limitations, as well as the requirement to deliver specific outcomes for
the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, ensured that a pragmatic approach to
project management was adopted. Decisions needed to be made within tight time
constraints to ensure completion by deadlines and time constraints had to be balanced with
gaining data of sufficient quality and quantity to provide evidence to warrant specific
findings. With more time, we would have followed up the university surveys to solicit
more strategies from colleagues.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
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Chapter 9 – Evaluation
An external evaluator
The project team engaged an evaluation consultant, Mr Patrick Boyle of Q Associates, to
carry out an external, summative evaluation of Accounting for the Future: more than
numbers on the following terms:
Advise on an evaluation strategy for the project leader and project manager;
Develop an evaluation methodology and plan;
Conduct data analyses and synthesis;
Derive findings and judgments regarding the overall merit and worth of the project;
and
Write a summary statement on the evaluation
Summary Statement written by Patrick Boyle
The Accounting for the Future: more than numbers project was an important, timely and
ambitious one. Its results have great potential for enhancing experiences and outcomes for
accounting students, academics and the profession.
Through the project, stakeholders in accounting education external to universities have
made it clear that accounting graduates need to be far better equipped with non-technical
skills and attributes than they have been historically.
The project achieved several very valuable outcomes, incorporating its principal
objectives. Its most noteworthy results were as follows:
Generation of a clear and updated knowledge base concerning the most
important non-technical skills required of accounting graduates
Production of a set of examples of strategies/initiatives to embed (enable
learning of) non-technical skills currently in use in Australian university
accounting programs
Clear enhancement of engagement with stakeholders in accounting education
on the challenges associated with learning non-technical skills, particularly
through the facilitation of a richer discourse on this matter
The project was led and conducted very effectively, particularly given the scope of work
the Project Team set for itself (e.g. inclusiveness of stakeholders), and the limited
resources available. Based on my experiences in project evaluation and management, the
Project represents very good value for money.
While a very significant accomplishment, this project should not be seen as an end in
itself. It has provided a timely and important input to a process that needs to be ongoing
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
72
and taken seriously over several years if accounting graduates’ attributes are to include
significantly enhanced non-technical skills, such as effective communication capabilities.
Such effects are possible as a result of university programs, but achievement of them will
require serious and creative review and development of curricula, and learning and
teaching activities in particular. This in turn will require the investment of significant
funds and energy in universities to enable academics and other people to do the necessary
innovation and development work. In this project the offers made by so many external
people, to collaborate with and help the universities, is a very positive outcome. I urge
academic leaders, funding organizations such as the ALTC, and accounting professional
bodies to support well-conceived follow-up initiatives to advance the work of the
Accounting for the Future: more than numbers project, particularly ones that seek to
harness creative and substantive collaborations between key stakeholders.
Accounting for the future: more than numbers 2009, vol. 1
73
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